AvWeek editor Bill Sweetman is suspicious of the claims being made about JSF:

If your track record is Ishtar and Howard the Duck, and you tell me that you've got something that beats Gone With The Wind and Star Wars, you are going to have to prove it with more than a PowerPoint, or "trust me, but it's secret."

This comes on the heels of new questions about just how stealthy the JSF will really be. As Sweetman explains in an email, there is a confluence of events that gives the JSF team a chance to shut down the competition before any of these problems becomes an existential threat to the program:

First, a new administration. Second, last chance to extend the F-22 production run. Third, close-to-last chance to extend the Super Hornet production run. The JSF team would like to see both turned down, get the F-22 money and leave the Navy irrevocably committed to JSF.

It will be interesting to see how an Obama administration tries to game this out without looking weak on defense -- a fear which seems to drive many of the decisions Obama has already made on national security. In this case, I suspect the greater danger comes from overcompensating. But given the trillions the government plans to throw at things we don't need, maybe JSF should just be considered part of the defense stimulus.