On the other hand, this is the second positive article on this plane to hit the top of hacker news in 3 days [1]. A trillion dollar plane that is notorious for costing way too much probably has a pretty decent marketing budget behind it, and it's not very difficult to assume that these articles are part of that somehow.
For an article that came out before this recent press rollout began, try this one: "The F-35 Is a $1.4T National Disaster"
Or another one not so long ago about still ongoing troubles with F-35C carrier version [1]. I stumbled upon that while following up to reading of the recent F-35 post on HN. Fascinating craft, nevertheless.
While at it also found some stories about F-35 helmet targeting systems, if it's anything like BAE Striker II for Eurofighter [3]
I find, anecdotally, that topics or subject trends come in waves of 2 or 3. Something will make front page of HN, and then a few days later someone else will capitalize on a proven "market of interest" and submit another article that also makes it's way up.
Could also be a paid PR campaign if you're the cynical type. 50/50
“Capitalizing on a proven market“, or maybe just simple, old-fashioned web "surfing". Following the links deeper and deeper into a topic originally found on hn. Hundreds venture off into the rabbit holes, a tiny fraction feel they found something worth sharing back to hn.
Most likely a bit of both, you are not alone in noticing the pattern.
A trillion dollar plane that's cutting edge probably has a pretty decent opposition market budget behind it from adversarial nations, and it's not very difficult to assume that these articles are part of that somehow.
While at it also found some stories about F-35 helmet targeting systems, if it's anything like BAE Striker II for Eurofighter [3]
1. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/navys-version-f-35-ha...
2. https://militarymachine.com/f-35-helmet
3. http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/future-tech/inside-baes-stri...