You’ll recall that the F-35 is the plane opponents of the F-22 used to justify cutting the latter’s production short. Don’t worry, they said, we’ll have the F-35 to ensure our national security!

Turns out there was a hidden Pentagon report that shows the F-35 program two years behind schedule and billions over budget. So that super-awesome plane that was going to replace the F-22? Not so super-awesome or replace-y.

Now, senators and aides are lamenting that the Pentagon oversight panel’s more pessimistic view on the F-35 program was not publicly released during the F-22 debate and are calling for more open disclosure of the problems with the development of the F-35.

The Pentagon’s Joint Estimate Team (JET), which was established to independently oversee the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, is at odds with the fighter’s Joint Program Office, the aides said. The oversight panel’s calculations determined that the fighter won’t be able to move out of the development phase and into full production mode until 2016, rather than 2014 as the program office has said. That’s assuming there are no further problems with the program, which has already faced cost overruns and schedule delays. The Government Accountability Office said the delay could cost as much as $7.4 billion.

Good thing super military geniuses like Barack Obama, Robert Gates, John McCain, and the senators who voted to strike the F-22 told us we didn’t need that “outdated” plane any more. After all, we’re gonna have that super-awesome F-35 JSF….any year now.

Dumbass national security risk accomplished.