Wondrous

Something I've noted, more than once, is when the press screeches that a new weapon is a failure...

The first time it's used for realsies it's a spectacular success.

My mom used to watch 60-Minutes, and back in the days of 4 channels and one-TV-per-household, that meant I watched 60-minutes too.

I lost count of the number of breathless reports about how doomed we were against the Soviet menace because our weapons were utter garbage.

I lost my ability to be astonished at how ill informed their defense reporters were.  Remember the Falklands?  They were actually demanding that the US buy Exocet missiles because we didn't have any in our inventory...  They were right!  Our equivalent missile was the Harpoon, with longer range, larger warhead and thanks to Operation Preying Mantis, combat proven.

I remember the AGM-88 HARM and their scandal about its altimeter sensors being poorly made and nothing being done to fix the issue, thus the missile was useless.  Yet the AGM-88 caused the Soviets to completely change their philosophy about how to deploy and employ SAM's and AAA and their associated radars.

Remember when the M1 Abrams would be useless in deserts?

So I expect that F-35 and THAAD to be miraculously effective when finally deployed for real.

You can't go too far wrong betting against the press on defense.