"Maj Adam Levine says for Marine fliers like himself, the F-35 is supposed to replace three different planes: the F/A-18 Hornet, the AV-8B Harrier, and the EA-6B Prowler jamming airplane currently employed by the Marines Corps.
"But to do that, manufacturer Lockheed had to mess with the sleek shape of this plane and add a special feature. The Marine version sports a noticeable bump behind the cockpit; that's the home of a powerful fan.
"The fan, Levine explains, provides the thrust and lift needed for the aircraft to perform short takeoffs and vertical landings.
"Vertical landings let the jet land like a helicopter, and let it take off on short runways, critical functions for the Marines. But that bump also makes the plane less stealthy, and it has added greatly to the cost.
"The Marine version of the plane costs more than $160 million, nearly one-third more expensive than the Air Force variant, which costs nearly $130 million.
Just view the photo, graphic 1, (skip graphics 2 and 3) and the two video clips.
(a) In the photo, the vertical fan in the foreground will be right behind the pilot, and the 45-degree downward tube in the backgrund, at the tail.
(b) The two video clips clearly shows the (white) bump--I will call it a box--"behind the cockpit."
(c) Many Taiwanese are crazy about the marine version, F-35B, but the price tag, at present $160m (supposedly reducing over time, as more are built) is four times that of a F-16 (including training, maintenance, and some parts).
Note: The report quoted Winslow Wheeler as saying Lockheed uses a pricing vocabulary that masks rising costs: "Flyaway costs, non-recurring and recurring costs. Lots of gobblygook and they'll say that comes to a number like 60, 70 million dollars, and it's complete baloney."
* Only rarely is the spelling "gobblygook" found in Google search.
* gobbledygook (n; irregular from gobble, noun; First Known Use 1944):
"wordy and generally unintelligible jargon"
* gobbledygook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobbledygook
(section 1 Etymology)