This project is following the same arc as the fabled Russian jet fighter, the MiG-25.

We are witnessing the flight of a yet another turkey, whose existence is primarily due to the enormous constituency that has grown up around its production and its justification. For starters, over 120,000 jobs rely on this aircraft, and I'd be willing to bet most of those workers are highly paid defense industry workers. You know which party they tend to vote for. Almost every state in the Union owns a piece of this bipartisan porker.

The Democrats have little incentive to cancel this project either. Over and above adding to employment stats, all that money eventually finds its way into stimulating the economy anyway. Its only a question of whether we give it out as food, health and educational programs for the poor, or lavish it instead on high-tech engineers and managers so they can meet their mortgage payments and keep their BMWs on the road. Congress won't vote money to replace bridges that are falling apart, but they'll gladly lavish cash on planes that won't fly.

Complex societies, regardless of how they are organized ideologically, must devote part of their resources to lunatic projects like this. I think of it as a kind of unavoidable social friction--like waste heat. There are other considerations in the design and deployment of weapon systems than mere combat effectiveness, and it has nothing to do with whether the governments they occur in are Capitalist or Socialist. It mostly has to do with guys wearing neckties in bullshit jobs protecting their jive-ass careers in government and industry.

And when they feel threatened, they'll stop at nothing to cover their asses.