Bangladesh, Feb. 15 -- On paper, the F-35 is a truly remarkable aircraft. Its numerous systems, subsystems and sensors provide unprecedented situational awareness and allow the jet to act as a force multiplier for other weapon systems. However, in practice, things are starkly different. Namely, Lockheed Martins most significant product is infamous for its numerous design flaws, hardware and software issues, notorious lack of robustness and poor kinetic performance. And yet, theres another glaring problem thats not always discussed and comes down to basic economics – chronic shortages of rare-earth elements (REEs). It doesnt take an expert to understand that Lockheed Martin needs these materials to build all the high-tech sensors and...