Are you seriously attributing this to the graft where politicians line their pockets at the taxpayer expense?
Also, they literally were not commissioned to make the most advanced fighter in the world. They had the most advanced fighter in the world, were commissioned by the military to create a budget airplane for mass deployment. And instead made another super expensive plane instead.
While embezzling 75% of the development funds, and then selling this airplane all across the worlds to other countries, diluting the USA's military advantage... and the funds from the sales didn't even go to the USA govt, it went to line the pockets of billionaires.
So realistically, we are looking at over 90% embezzlement... that also happened to develop the most advanced aircraft in the world... at 4x the time frame than planned.
And you are literally defending the mass embezzlement on the grounds of "well they produced results" (although not the result they were asked to).
I assure you the embezzlement was not a positive contributing factor for the results produced.
You really don't know much about what you're talking about here.
First off, Congress and the DoD are the ones who keep changing program requirements. It's not like the program was 'Get us a cheap alternative to the F-22' and then Lockheed-Martin went and did their own thing. Over the
decades of development, politicians et al kept adding to the program requirements, particularly in how it included a variante capable of VTOL or STOVL carrier-capacity.
Congress asked for this.
Further, other countries also paid into the development costs, which is part of why they're being sold the F-35, unlike the F-22, which is very much an American exclusive.
The timeframe it took is ridiculous, and the cost paid for it
certainly is inflated, but it's more about inefficiency and vote-buying (We build part of that in my district because of me! Keep voting for me, I brought jobs in!) than about massive embezzlement.
Part of the reason it took so long to develop though, was because (IIRC) the program started in the late 80's. Information and computer technology has been developing so insanely fast, and bringing changes to so many other sectors as a result. This still does not wholly justify, and certainly does not
excuse the sheer scale of schedule and cost over-run, but there is
some reason.
The crucial factor to all of this though, is that if there ever
is a war against China, Russia, or any hostile nation that fields Generation 4/4.5 fighter craft, the F-22 and F-35 mean that the skies will be
utterly dominated by the US and its allies.
Total Air Supremacy isn't a
guarantee to winning a war, but it's about the closest thing there is to it, and for the US, it's a guarantee you won't
lose, given the enemy needs to cross the ocean to get to you.
If you want something to
really bitch about in wasted time and money regarding aerospace defense spending, Obama ending the production run of the F-22 and
ordering the tooling destroyed, now
that's something that there should be treason trials over.