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Yes !We asked a lot of questions. Nowadays, a lot of people want to start a business, but we have to look at what is important.Show yourself money: You can't start a business without capital. Decide what you have, what you need, and how you will get it.The most important thing is to research your potential market. ... Others understand that their target market audience is too limited to operate their business.Obtain necessary licenses and permits: In addition to business licenses, you may need to obtain additional licenses depending on the type of business and local law. .Many businesses, such as contractors and real estate agents, need to be licensed in the state in which they operate. However, if you take the above seven steps, you will find yourself in a confident, business-ready position. Hire a good accountant: An accountant will work closely with your lawyer and play an important role in determining the best form of ownership.In addition, you may need a license to manufacture and / or sell certain products, such as alcohol, firearms or lottery tickets. Research all licenses in your county and your state. It is also in which zone you will be in before you open a business. That means the zone is also very important. .Don’t assume that zoning laws don’t apply to you. You can get zoning information from your local county clerk's office.the structure of the business:Your choices include sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, "S" corporation or limited liability corporation (LLC). Personal liabilities, taxes, documents and rules vary greatly across different legal business structures. Your attorney and accountant will play a key role in assisting you in this important decision.Find out the name of the business .It may seem simple and straightforward, but it is the name of the business.The right name says a lot about your company. Make a list of possible names and describe below the one that best describes your company in a few words, charming, easy to remember, easy to pronounce and easy to spell. It should also consider how it will translate into a web domain name. You will also need to do research to find out if there are a) similar business names and b) similar domain names.Branding the business, deciding your brand is also very importantresearch: Just because you build it or sell it doesn't necessarily mean anyone will buy it. The first essential step is to research your potential market. Who needs what you are offering? Is there space for your product or service in the market or is the market saturated? Is the market national? Is it a niche? Can you define your ideal customers? These are all questions that need to be answered before you even consider starting a business. Too many entrepreneurs have found out the hard way that there was not enough market share for them to capture. Others have realized that their target market audience was far too limited to make their business work.What required a money 💰: You can't start a business without capital. Determine what you have, what you will need and how you will go about getting it. If you plan to seek investor funding or financing, start writing a business plan and practice your pitch. Research the costs associated with your business. Know how much money you'll need and decide where it could come from.Experts say some good first steps in starting a business are researching competitors, assessing the legal aspects of your industry, considering your personal and business finances, getting realistic about the risk involved, understanding timing, and hiring help.Requird-Begin with a detailed plan. This one is a must: Develop an in-depth plan that fully details how you'll attack the challenge ahead. ...Get out there and network. ...Surround yourself with the right people. ...Stay ahead of the curve. ...Find a healthy work-life balanceDevelo-p a powerful message.Focus on the customer and fully understand the market.Start small and grow.Understand your own strengths, skills, and time available.Surround yourself with advisors and mentors.Get a mentor.Write a business plan.Know your numbers.Write a business plan. ...Choose a legal structure. ...Get your business registration, licenses, and tax identification. ...Know your competition and marketplace. ...Finance your business. ...Identify and secure a location. ...Get proper insurance. ...Obtain legal counselPersonal Wellness. ...Courses in Other Hobbies. ...Bookkeeping and Accounting. ...Consulting. ...Graphic Design. ...Social Media Management. ...Marketing Copywriter. ...Virtual Assistant Services. Finally, last on our list of the most profitable small businesses: virtual assistant services.Prakash Dighe.

Developing a clinical trial budget can be a confusing exercise for sponsors and CROs. There are too many cost variables to account for.This post covers the key cost drivers for medical device clinical trials. If you are a researcher or financial analyst working in clinical trial space or simply curious about clinical trial costs, this post will serve you well.So let’s get started.1. PATIENT GRANTPatient grant costs are broken down into screening, baseline and follow-up visits and medical imaging costs.A. SCREEN FAILURESClinical trial protocols have inclusion and exclusion criteria to qualify patients. Strict inclusions and exclusion criteria reduce the available patient pool for trial enrollment. Clinical sites spend physician and site coordinator time to screen for potential patients.During the budgeting process, map out the complete patient screening workflow. Speak with a few clinical sites to understand how many patients they would have to see in order to find one qualified patient. For example, a site may need to screen four patients to find one qualified patient. Understand how many hours the site is spending on screening activities and reimburse accordingly. It is not unusual to reimburse sites anywhere between $50 to $250+ per screen failure.B. BASELINE/INDEX PROCEDURE AND FOLLOW-UP VISITSDepending on the clinical trial design, data is collected at baseline/index procedures and follow-up visits. The site coordinator is generally responsible for entering the data in the case report form. Sites are reimbursed for the time spent to collect clinical trial data.Based on number and type data fields you are collecting, you’ll want to estimate the site coordinator time needed to collect and input trial data. Multiply the estimated coordinator time by the hourly bill rate to obtain the fair market value for each patient visit.In some cases, sponsors may choose to reimburse patients. Reimbursement for patients can include paying for their participation, reimbursement for travel, meals or overnight hotel stays.C. NON-STANDARD OF CARE TESTSMedical device trials may require non-standard of care tests such as medical imaging scans. These costs are generally not reimbursed by insurance companies or medical care agencies and should be budgeted as part of the clinical trial cost.D. PROCEDURE COSTSIf the clinical trial procedure is reimbursed, you don’t need to budget for the procedure cost. Insurance or medical care agencies will pay for the procedure. In case a brand new procedure where no reimbursement available, budget for the procedure costs.2. SITE COSTSA. START-UP FEESClinical sites spend significant time to initiate a new clinical trial. Sites are responsible for site specific informed consent development, Ethics Committee (EC)/ Investigational Review Board (IRB) submissions, staff training including participation in investigator/ site coordinator meetings and site initiation visits and execute a clinical trial contract. It is typical for sponsor to pay anywhere between $2000 – $5000+ in site start-up fees.B. EC/IRB FEESEC/IRB fees are in addition to site start-up fees. These fees cover the time spent to by EC/IRBs to plan and conduct review of the clinical trial protocol and other associated materials. Many EC/IRBs update and publish their rates annually.C. CLOSE-OUT FEESClose-out fees include time spent by site staff to reconcile clinical trial data, finances and regulatory documents during study closure. Not all sites require this payment but has started to become a more common practice in recent years.D. STORAGE FEESGovernment regulations require that clinical trial data be stored after study close-out. The duration for storage can range from 2-years to permanent storage. It is not uncommon for sites to have boxes of regulatory paperwork that needs to be stored once a clinical trial ends. The storage fees vary by country and site.Some sponsors make arrangements for site to send trial documents to an offsite storage location. Due to country specific regulations, a site might be unable to move documents outside their country.E. ADMINISTRATIVE OVERHEADClinical sites may require as much as 30% administrative overhead in addition to per patient grant amount. This cost covers management and legal resources needed to provide clinical research oversight and legal review of clinical contracts respectively.F. SITE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION (SMO)In certain countries such as Japan, data entry and collection tasks are outsourced to SMOs. For post approval studies, sites do not research coordinator support. Sponsors are expected to hire SMOs to support the site or pay the sites to hire their preferred SMOs.3. NON-PATIENT COSTSA. CLINICAL EVALUATION COMMITTEE (CEC)Adverse event and endpoint data is adjudicated by a non-biased, independent CEC. CEC is generally composed 3 or more physicians. CEC members review adverse events and trial endpoints in a team setting or independently.A sponsor can hire physicians to serve as the CEC and reimburse them at fair market value rates. It is more cost effective for sponsor to contract with physicians directly. However the sponsor has to assign its own resources to manage the CEC.The other option is for the sponsor to outsource management and conduct of CEC activities. This option is more expensive because you are hiring professionals to manage the CEC.CEC is a very important component of medical device clinical trial. Adjudicated adverse event data is highly regarded by regulatory agencies and the physician community. In many cases, it is a requirement to have adjudicated adverse event data in order to get the product on market.B. DATA SAFETY MONITORING BOARD (DSMB)DSMB is also known as the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC). According to IMARC research, the purpose of the DMC is to advise the sponsor on continuing safety of the trial subjects and those yet to be recruited and provide continuing validity and scientific merit of the study.For budgeting purposes, it is important to know that DSMB is required during trial enrollment phase and in some cases till all patients have reached their primary endpoint. The decision of whether or not to conduct DSMB meetings after the primary endpoint is reached, is up to the sponsor.C. PHYSICIAN CONSULTINGPhysicians are consulted during all phases of a clinical trial. Physician guidance is needed to develop clinical trial strategy, enrollment plan, final data analysis and publication plans.Depending on the physician’s medical expertise and geographical location, consulting costs can be anywhere between $150 – $600+ per hour. If a clinical trial is interesting to the physician, he or she may be willing to provide consulting services at no cost.D. INDEPENDENT CORELAB ANALYSISMany medical device trials collect imaging data such as angiograms, CT scans and X-Rays. Since this data comes from multiple sites, variability is expected. An independent corelab standardizes the collection and analysis of imaging data.Corelab costs can add up quickly. Costs depend upon the number of images analyzed per patient, the time it takes for the corelab to analyze the data, and the duration of the trial.Corelabs usually hire analysts to collect and calibrate data from different sites. The final analysis is usually done by a physician. Given the complexity of imaging data collection and analysis combined with the importance of corelab data to regulatory agencies, it is important that adequate and accurate budget is allocated for independent corelab analysis.E. MEDICAL DEVICE COSTOnce you are ready to enroll patients in the clinical trial, you’ll need to ship medical devices to the sites. Most sites will expect to receive these devices for free. The only exception is when conducting post approval trials for commercially available devices.Medical device manufacturers conduct trials for indication expansion. For example, a stent company may conduct a trial to get their heart stent approved for use in a different anatomy. For such expansion trials, sponsors may need to provide commercially available devices to sites at no cost.Whether or not you want to provide devices at no cost is a business decision. When investigational medical devices are provided at no cost, sites enroll faster and have a much stronger, collaborative relationship with the sponsor.4. LABOR COSTSIn order to conduct a clinical trial, you need to hire people that have expertise in clinical research and clinical trial management. Depending on the size of the trial and the number of trials conducted, resource allocations vary. Therefore amount of labor needed to run a study also varies.A. CLINICAL RESEARCH ASSISTANTS OR ASSOCIATES (CRAS)CRAs are primarily responsible for monitoring clinical trial data that is collected during the course of the study. They visit clinical research sites to ensure data is collected in a compliant manner.B. PROJECT MANAGER (ALSO KNOWN AS CLINICAL TRIAL MANAGER OR STUDY MANAGER)A project manager’s responsibilities can vary from one organization to another. Project managers are like “general contractors.” A project manager is responsible for managing the clinical trial budget, resources and timelines. The core function of a project manager is to resolve or escalate issues that come up during the course of a clinical study.C. DATA MANAGERA data manager’s job is to address data discrepancy issues by generating queries to sites. Data managers may also be responsible for implementing electronic data capture system or paper case report forms needed to collect trial data.D. SCIENTISTThe scientist is primarily responsible for developing the clinical strategy for a trial. Individuals with Ph.D. or M.D. degrees are usually the right fit for this role. In some organizations, the project manager also play the role of the scientist.E. BIOSTATISTICIANA biostatistician is responsible for developing a statistical analysis plan (SAP). The SAP documents on the data will be analyzed during the course of the study. A statistician or statistical programmer is also responsible for programming data tables that are incorporated in the final clinical study reports.F. QUALITYClinical research is a regulated industry. Quality plays an important role in ensuring sponsors, CROs, and clinical sites are conducting the trial in a compliant manner. A quality associate or manager helps an organization create and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs).Salaries for these roles can vary by geography and experience. The above list is not comprehensive. However it should give you an idea of the core resources needed to conduct a medical device clinical trial.5. SITE MANAGEMENTA. PRE-STUDY VISITSPrior to inviting any site to participate in a clinical trial, you want to conduct pre-study visit, also know as the site assessment visit. This visit becomes even more important if you don’t have any prior experience working with the site in a clinical or commercial setting.Although sites don’t charge for this visit, the sponsor will need to pay for travel and CRA labor costs.B. SITE INITIATION VISITS (SIV)Once the site has received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and the trial contract has been signed, it’s time to activate the site for patient enrollment.A SIV is conducted once you are ready to activate the site. SIV involves training the site on the clinical protocol and any other study-specific requirements.Similar to the a pre-study visit, the sponsor will need to pay for travel and CRA labor costs.C. MONITORINGOnce patients are enrolled in the study, you want to ensure data is collected in a compliance with regulations and the clinical study protocol. This is when monitoring comes into play.A CRA, sometimes known as the site monitor, visits clinical sites at regular intervals to ensure compliance.In recent years, due to push for reduction in clinical trial costs, several sponsors have started to monitor remotely rather than conducting an in-person monitoring trip.D. CLOSE-OUTOnce all patients at a site have completed their follow-up visits, it’s time to conduct a close-out visit. Any open items related to study conduct are addressed during the close-out visit.Although it’s always nice to have in-person close-out visits, it’s acceptable to close trials via remote close-out calls.6. MISCELLANEOUSA. INVESTIGATOR MEETINGSInvestigator Meetings usually serve to kick-off a new clinical trial. Investigators and research coordinators participating in the study are invited to participate in a 1-2 day meeting. The purpose of these meetings is to educate site personnel on the clinical trial protocol and any other specific trial requirements.These meetings can be quite expensive as airfare, hotel and meals are usually provided by the sponsor.B. TRAVELPlan and budget for adhoc travel. Since clinical trials are heavily regulated, you may need to visit a site to address a compliance issue or help them prepare for an audit. In other cases, you may want to visit a site to motivate them to enroll patients. Whatever the case may be, it’s always good to have some money set aside for travel.C. DOCUMENT TRANSLATIONSDocument translations costs can increase significantly depending on the countries in which the clinical trial is conducted. Sites where English is not the primary language, you may receive request for translation of key documents such as the protocol and site specific informed consent in the local language.Also if the adverse event source documents from non-English speaking sites are in their native language, additional costs will incur to translate documents into English for event adjudication purposes.D. TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONSClinical Trial Management System (CTMS), Electronic Data Capture (EDC), Electronic Trial Master File (eTMF), Interactive Voice/Web Response System are a few common technology solutions implemented when conducting a clinical study. These systems are needed to manage site contact information, collect clinical data and maintain clinical trial records. There is a monthly or annual license fee associated with these systems. Additionally staff is needed to manage and maintain these systems.E. REGULATORY FILING FEESRegulatory filing fees should not be overlooked as these can run into thousands of dollars. Depending on the class of medical device, different applications need to be filed with regulatory agencies, competent authorities and notified bodies.7. OTHER FACTORS:A. PROTOCOL AMENDMENTSDue to unforeseen circumstances, a clinical protocol amendment may be necessary. A protocol amendment has many downstream effects that can increase the cost of a clinical trial.A protocol amendment usually leads to additional IRB/EC fees, site costs, regulatory re-submissions and more.B. INFLATION, VALUE ADDED TAX (VAT) AND FOREIGN EXCHANGEInflation should be factored in for multi-year clinical trials. In the US, a minimum 3% inflation is expected.Sites in countries such as Australia and Europe, add VAT for the research services. VAT can be upwards of 12% on all research services.For trials conducted in multiple countries, paying attention to foreign exchange rates. At a minimum, annual review of exchange rates is advised. Clinical trial cost projections should be adjusted based on exchange rates.C. TRIAL ENROLLMENT DELAYSEnrolling in trials is tricky business. It takes longer to complete enrollment and initial projections are overly optimistic. Account for these delays when you develop your clinical trial budget.[1]To summarize, you should now have a solid understanding of these factors that impact clinical trial costs:Patient grant amount such as screen failure costs, data entry costs and travel reimbursementSite costs such as site start-up fees, EC/IRB fees, close-out and storage feesNon-patient costs such as core labatory fees, clinical events committee and data safety monitoring boardLabor costs – clinical research employee salaries or contractor paymentsSite management costs such as pre-study, site initiation, monitoring and close-out visitsMiscellaneous costs such as travel, technology solutions and regulatory filing costsOther factors such as value added tax, inflation, protocol amendment and delays in enrollmentFootnotes[1] Ultimate Guide to Clinical Trial Costs - Clinical Trial Podcast

If you want the truth, the F-35 is probably worse than its detractors claim. I don’t claim that it can’t be salvaged, but it is not doing well.If Lockheed Martin had not gotten away with starting production before the aircraft was ready for production, it would have been cancelled. No hope whatsoever of survival.Why haven’t the Air Force cancelled it? Some history lessons first. But keep in mind this : The Americans will always learn fast, but only when forced to do so.History lessonsThe US Army entered two world wars completely delusional about their combat abilities. In WW1, France provided staff services to try to keep the Americans formations from breaking down and stay in combat. In WW2, the British barely managed to get them to start soft in North Africa. Omar Bradly in his 1951 book credited the British general Harold Alexander with patience and experience when helping an inexperienced United States "field command mature and eventually come of age".The British had their faults, but they had learnt the hard way what it took to take on the Germans. And their assessment of the ability of the Allies to land in France was a lot more realistic than the American ones. In 1943, the Allies could land 5 divisions in France. The Americans thought this was enough. Whatever they were smoking, they should have stopped a long time ago.Some of the major failures of the British were that they didn’t use the experienced officers from WW1 to train their forces. And they simply failed to train their soldiers and officers properly (a fault shared with the US). And they also failed to train enough officers. They were asking allies for volunteer officers as late as ‘44. And this is a time when they have been to war for nearly 5 years. The organisational talent of the British in WW2 were drastically overrated by later generation. And they were sloooooow learners.Using WW1 veterans was something that the Germans did very successfully. They even used WW1 NCOs in WW2. If you invaded the Soviet union, it could well be that your NCO was called Alte (oldtimer) because he was WW1 vintage. Twice the age of the rest of the squad or company.The American general Mark Clark in Italy landed two divisions at Anzio. One British and one American. Only a complete nutter would think that these should push inland and leave behind the ability to be supplied from the beachhead. This was a job that general Alexander earlier estimated would need 5 divisions.The invasion force could only push inland if the beachhead were being continually reinforced with new troops. And they would really need one or two armoured divisions.The French high command allowed the Germans to enter through the Ardennes. They made sure to move units that could block the Germans out of the way. And they forbade the French Air Force to bomb the sitting ducks.The French air force asked the RAF to bomb the Germans, but they were ineffectual and suffered substantial losses. The British failed to understand that 100% losses would be acceptable under the circumstances. And they failed to set fire to the woods. Apparently the senior British commanders did not learn fast. Or understand the seriousness of the situation.Many moons ago general officers did not join companies that were in the defence sector. Why? Integrity. Dangling fat paychecks in front of people tend to distract them and change priorities and principles.The lesson from this is that high office does not mean that the persons are rational and behave in the best interest of the nation. An even if the service reaches a level of ability and understanding, it can easily erode.So now you know why the USAF won’t cancel. Other countries tend to follow the Americans because they have been successful in the past. They appear to not understand that past success is no guarantee for future success.History lessons round twoDuring the start of WW2, the German had inferior tanks to the French, British (some British tanks were much worse), Soviets and Americans. They compensated with a better understanding of how to use their tanks, ability to improvise and a strong will to learn. In general they had a better doctrine at the start of the war.A lot of aircraft in the Kosovo Air War was saved by flying too high for the missiles the Serbs had.Due to strong discipline, it was difficult to knock out many of the anti aircraft batteries.NATO made big claims for the amount of equipment destroyed and the number of troops killed in the campaign. Some time after the war, the claims were changed to largely match the claims of the Serbs. The Serb deceptions worked very well.A lot of people took lessons from that Kosovo Air War in 1999. And it really defined how any future war against a competent enemy will be. By definition all Middle East countries apart from Israel and Turkey are incompetent. The Iranians are working on improving their skills. Missile ranges have increased and radars and procedures have become a lot smarter and most important; jam resistant.Superior understanding of how to wage war can compensate for not having better equipment than your enemy. Actually, just the understanding of how to compensate for the lack of ability can be enough.Reactions to US stealth fighters.Everybody changed their radar detectors from scanning to reading the entire radar band in one go. This means that the F-35 radar is discovered at once.They added self protection devices. This have taken more time. The current ones are rumored to be very aggressive and will attack open ports just like open devices on the internet. The USAF have licensed firewalls for the F-35 from an Israeli company.The sensors do not have the range of the F-22 and F-35 radars. Why? Simple. It is not cost effective. In a war with a near equal, jamming and electronic noise will be the norm. You will have to be fairly close to use radar and you will have to amp up power to burn through the noise. You can easily end up with the IRST being the sensor with the longest range.Using missiles at extreme ranges is just a waste of missiles. As long as the target is nimble and can detect the missile, it is very likely to outmaneuver the missile. This is because the laws of physics, not some magical self protection suite. Having said self protection suite further reduces the chance of a missile hitting.All new fighter seems to be sold with AESA radars. These are more capable of detecting stealthy aircraft. And they do double duty as EW emitters/receivers. The Eurofighter AESA radar is claimed by the manufacturer to detect an F-35 at 69km. They didn’t say if the was the British or the general version. The British version have more T/R modules and have longer range and more power.The ground based radars have become a lot more advanced and can now track aircraft, but have limitations in how many aircraft can be engaged at any one time.The X-band radars are force multipliers that allow a lot more targets to be engaged. And they transmit commands to the missiles from the surveillance radars.Office of Testing and Evaluation reportsThe Department of Defence Office of Testing and Evaluation reports are completely ignored by the proponents. The F-35 is not a defence project, it is a religion. Any information that does not support the F-35 being able to do now what the USAF and Lockheed Martin says it will eventually do, is ignored and vilified. Proponents are seldom willing to stoop so low as to actually read the reports.Red flag exercisesFirst. During Red Flag Alaska years ago, the Eurofighters had a 90% kill ratio. Nobody thought that was much to write home about since their radars outrange the opposition and the opposition were T-38 trainers and F-16 fighters with old sensors. It is what I call the antiques roadshow.Understanding how Red Flag exercises works and realize that it says nothing about the wartime combat abilities of the F-35 does not require a high IQ. The target aircraft do not see the missiles in flight because there are no missiles in flight. At best they are dots on a computer screen somewhere. And the target just gets notified that it has been killed.As far as beyond visual range missiles is concerned, Red Flag is a fantasy. It does not reflect the real world. It is probably most useful in giving the impression that the F-35 works so that Congress will not stop the project.Keep note on how long it will be accompanied by F-22 fighters. Why? It can’t find targets on its own. It needs them handed over from some other source. Once the F-22 is no longer needed, that bug is fixed. But in the real world it might still need the F-22, F-15 or F-18 around due to problems defending itself.DogfightsI’m pretty sure that the F-22 and F-35 has a gun system which takes control of the aircraft when the pilot presses the trigger. This means that when the trigger is pressed, the opponent is dead. The gunsights of at least older aircraft only show directions for the pilot to get into position. Which is a pretty stupid way of doing it.Why do fighters get continue to be shot down? Doctrine. The current doctrine is that you maintain speed at all cost. This means when you end up in a dogfight, you end up in front of the F-22 or F-35 and you are dead. You end up in front because when these flies at high angle of attack they are braking and the other aircraft overshoots.The reason for the Eurofighter being able to shoot down the F-22 is probably that a German pilot eventually realised that the key to surviving is staying behind the F-22. A total break with doctrine. And a key to success.How will a future war be conductedInitially the Russians or the Chinese will probably jam everything and use that noise to attack aerial tankers, AWACS and other important targets.That means that the NATO aircraft no longer have their support and will become extremely vulnerable because they are mostly single seat fighters. The pilots will be overloaded and become easy targets for the opposition. The opposition will have an extensive ground based well defended radar network.Single seat fighters and bombers is an extremely bad idea in a world with advanced electronic warfare.What killed the F-22Availability. The real cost of having an aircraft available at all times is <unit price> * (100/<availability in %>). If availability is 30%, you need 3 .3 aircraft to produce one ready aircraft at all times.In the end, not even the Air Force wanted them. On the other hand the US air forces have a tendency to kill off aircraft before they have a successor ready.How is the status now?The F-35 looks good because the avionics of the F-16 and F-15 are very old. The F-18 have received AESA radars, but the project was not a success since it didn’t increase radar range. It is unclear if the American aircraft have new or old avionics. The export versions of the legacy fighters have modern avionics. It could well be that when the old aircraft gets modern avionics, the F-35 loses its luster. And people might ask if fitting a elint pod to an ordinary aircraft might not be a more cost effective way of doing the work. Or use a drone which could be more stealthy and less risky to use. Adding weapons seems to complicate things.BTW the Alaska Air National Guard F-15 fighters have more modern radars than the rest of the fleet.However there has been some radar projects that have not done particular well. Possibly due to choosing C++ as the programming language. C++ is good for the contractor on cost plus contracts, but really bad for the customer.The F-35 avionics hardware is now old. It uses 20 year old technology. The USAF didn’t learn from the Swedes which started to use modular electronics with the Saab 37 Viggen. Modular electronics means that you can replace parts of the system without affecting it. Or just speed it up. It will eventually be able to use modular software.Side note : The Viggen is the only known aircraft to have achieved radar lock-on on the SR-71. The intercepting aircraft were fed target information from ground radars.Its IRST is reported to be obsolete. It is claimed to not work very well. More recent IRST devices have longer range and better resolution.The F-35 is not allowed to fly faster than the speed of sound with internal weapons due to vibrations.It has been reported to have problems hitting ground targets with laser guided bombs. Around 50% misses.Americans like new technology. The problem is that if the technology is too new, it becomes extremely expensive. Developing technology is not bad, but fielding it before it is reliable and cost effective is not good.The Russians and everybody elseThe current air defense and area denial radars were designed with the F-117 and F-22 in mind. Possibly also the B-2. The F-117 is twice as stealthy as the F-35.Most public proponents of the F-35 do not understand war. They think that an enemy will just turn on the radar and wait for the bombs and missiles to strike them. The idea that it could be hard to find your enemy is completely alien to them. And it no enemy would be unsporting and wait to turn on their radars until the missiles are flying. Or employ spoofing and deception. And they keep on using their old radars from the ’80s and certainly do not upgrade them to resist jamming and detect stealthed aircraft.First, most radar systems are highly mobile. That means that they can move within five minutes or so. And the Russians are masters of maskirovka. That is hiding stuff and making it look like something else.Second, a lot of the Russian air defense systems are primarily targeting PGMs. Aircraft are bonuses. So the American tactic is to try to overwhelm the close in defences without being shot down themselves.Third, All the S-400 surveillance radars are AESA radars. That means that they can shape the signal and track accurately for missile shots.That means that they will be careful about turning on radars. They will launch missiles and only turn on the radars at the last moment. And since they probably have dummy missiles, it is hard to locate the real missile launchers.How good will it be?It will be excellent for bombing developing countries and countries in the Middle East and Africa.Anything else? I’m pretty certain that anybody doing war planning with no hope of getting on the gravy train is terrified of being stuck with only the F-35. It is simply too vulnerable and requires too much maintenance.I suspect that we will see new or refurbished F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighters with new avionics to “complement” the F-35.I think the others have already realised that stealth is only suitable for special missions. They are too expensive to rely on as a general workhorse for an air force.Stealth only works if your opponent thinks they need lots of horribly expensive stealth aircraft. If they rely on conventional aircraft and ground based air defense systems, you are the one with the white elephant.In the foreseeable future, conventional aircraft complemented by some stealth aircraft or drones is likely to be the most cost effective way of providing air defense with aircraft.The big question will be if ground based systems are the most effective air defense system. And that you need strike aircraft and some fighters to complement the ground based systems.Ground based systems are likely to be hard to jam because they can spread out their sensors and aircraft tend to be silhouetted which means that they might face problems trying to jam ground based air defenses. Instead of jamming, they might just become a homing beacon.Frankly, I think the F-35 will be a problem aircraft in the foreseeable future. The fix will always be right around the corner.