F-35 jets have over 200 deficiencies, unlikely to be combat ready by 2018-2019,

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The US defence department's ambitious project to develop F-35 stealth fighter jets is way behind schedule and the aircraft could be combat ready only by late 2018 or early 2019, a Pentagon report stated. It also cautioned against committing to a "block buy" of the jets "given the state of maturity of the programme". The project was recently slammed by US President-elect Donald Trump as being too expensive, who even threatened to scrap it once he assumes office on 20 January. However, manufacturer Lockheed Martin assured Trump of bringing the cost down.

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