It will NOT get axed for a couple of reasons:
1. Axe it, and America will have no plane to sell for the next 40
years, essentially giving
2. Axe it, and they will piss Britain off, big time. They are quite
unilateral, but they know better than to piss off they staunchest
ally.
3. The war in Afghanistan has produced a wonderful spinoff- the
huge military budget increase. There's money enuff for the JSF
program now(after goddamned Clinton starved the military. I hate
him not for his adultery, but his blatent lack of concern for the
military budget)
4. Axe it, and the Marines might just bomb the White House :-)
(they need to replace the AV-8B soon)
Now, why take such a cynical view of the JSF program? Granted, it
has to fulfil pretty demanding criterias, but during the F-111
saga, computer aided design technology had not advanced to a stage
possible to meet the demands from each service. The Services are
much more well-behaved this time.(not pushing its requirements
unnecessarily) Now, its very possible, and to do it economically
too. It will be on budget. That's the most important criteria, and
the JSF team has already demonstrated to the services that its
possible. IOC date of 2008 is ambitious, considering a couple of
still-maturing technologies used on the JSF, but not unfeasible,
especially whrn they are using a phased approach to the JSF's
introduction. The first JSF's will have more basic capability, with
succeeding blocks of JSF being introduced being increasingly
capable, until they become the all-up JSF.