DEFENSE: Gunless In The Wild Blue Yonder.

The F-35 is supposed to be the do-it-all solution in the skies for every branch of the military, a Swiss army knife whose strategic value lies in that it absolutely ensures American air superiority in any situation for the foreseeable future. This announcement doesn’t make an already delay-plagued program look any better, and highlights again the problems with our outmoded procurement policies. Even if the F-35’s guns are operational by 2017 as the program office says—and history suggests that they may not be—”good enough” isn’t good enough for the intended lynchpin of American airpower.

The country’s in the very best of hands.