F-35 program weighs security concerns as it creates global supplier base.

• Position: From the National Defense Blog: NationalDefenseMagazine.org/blog

* The U.S. military's most technologically sophisticated aircraft was designed to overwhelm enemies in combat but also as a novel multinational business consortium. A dozen countries so far have signed up for the F-35 either as buyer or as co-producer. Six nations recently were selected to provide depot maintenance for future F-35 fleets based in Europe and Asia.

Pentagon officials and executives from F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. have hailed global partnerships as essential to the success of the program and, as stated in Lockheed's marketing materials, as a model for "unprecedented technology transfer and innovation that is invaluable to the development of the F-35." But once the program kicks into high gear...