[SllX]

Apologies for the later reply, it has been a busy couple of days.

Certainly there is an opportunity cost in any large-scale expenditure, but the technology developed for the F-35 will be useful beyond just the F-35.

The United States has maintained technological and military superiority over its competition precisely because it is willing to invest large sums of money into the Military-Industrial Complex. The Space Race was one expression of this, and the United States and global economy has been coasting off the technology and discipline developed precisely to safely land a man on the Moon and safely return that same man home.

Yes, there are risks to putting too much money into extremely large capital expenditures which can potentially be lost in war but that is 1. the nature of war and 2. the US Military generally looks to be effective in all theaters of war, whether their opponent is following the same the rule book or not. The Air Force has their missions, and the Army, Marines, Coast Guard and Navy have theirs.

At the scale of the Department of Defense's budget though, opportunity costs don't mean the same thing to them that they mean to you or I though. They are operating arm of the largest economy of the world and should be viewed through that lens.