THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

What has to be the largest Pentagon procurement failure to date will make one more attempt to prove it can fly. The F-35 is making another debut as a flying vehicle for the Marines off the shores of North Carolina.

It has wound a tortured path to get here. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been derided as a trillion-dollar boondoggle, the “plane that ate the Pentagon,” a failed project billions over budget and years behind schedule that should be killed.

And yet here it was Tuesday, the sun glinting off its wings on a beautiful day as it approached this amphibious assault ship for a landing 100 miles off the North Carolina coast. It nestled in undaunted, touching down vertically like a helicopter onto the deck. Crews rushed around in a well-scripted choreography, getting ready to usher it off the ship again. And with the pilot’s salute from the cockpit, and a thunderous rush toward the horizon, it was off again over the deep blue water.

For the Marine Corps, the flights the F-35s have been taking around the USS Wasp for the past week have been as much a victory lap as they were training exercises. And in the days ahead, as the stealthy fighter jets begin their first operational tests from a ship — tactical exercises designed to simulate Top Gun-like engagements — the Marine Corps will move one step closer to declaring that the F-35 is ready for combat.

When exactly that day will come is still uncertain; the Marines are pushing to have an initial fleet of 10 planes ready to fight sometime in July. And there is still more testing, inspections and nit-picking to be done for the $400 billion program...

The F-35, built by Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, comes in three versions, for the Marine Corps, the Navy and the Air Force. The Air Force’s variant is expected to be declared ready for combat sometime late next year. The Navy’s variant is scheduled for that in late 2018 or early 2019.

While Pentagon officials say the program is largely back on track, there continue to be problems with the software of the plane, which is often referred to as a flying computer. Most recently, there were problems with the software that gathers information, such as targets, the location of the enemy, and then shares it among the F-35s flying together in formation.

If two jets are flying together, they can share the information without a problem. But when there are more flying together, the problems occur, which can “create an inaccurate picture for the pilot,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the joint program executive officer.

And last summer, an engine fire forced the Pentagon to temporarily ground the entire fleet while investigators figured out what went wrong.

So the Flying Brick can get off the ground or deck but as yet it is unable to perform its missionbecause it is totally dependent upon its computers and the software hasn't caught up to the promises yet. This magnificent and monstrously expensive piece of junk has been in development since 1996. Compare that to the 102 DAYS between contract and prototype for the P-51 Mustang which was good enough to take on multiple missions in WW II. It is probably safe to say the F-35 program has developed more rich Lockheed executives and Pentagon generals that usable examples.