Meyer notes that at the end of the fiscal year 2021, the F-35 still had 800 deficiencies that needed remediation, meaning that the US and its allies are paying for the potentially faulty F-35 while struggling to keep older planes in the air. He also mentions that the F-35 has suffered multiple crashes, with one of each variant crashing in 2022.
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In a January 2021 Stiftung und Wissenschaft article, Dominic Vogel stated that the F-35 might be a technology “black box” whose software and hardware are inaccessible or too complex to understand for export users.
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That gives the US leverage over F-35 end users, as the latter surrender critical military capabilities and, by extension, a degree of sovereignty in exchange for a supposedly top-of-the-line fighter jet that can not be operated without US assistance.