Rumors pilots are loving it.
“Rumors pilots are loving it.”
That has little to do with how survivable it will be if the Russians or Iranians have the ability to discover how to counter the one thing it does well. Allowing it to coexist in the same military as its adversary’s best defense against it will shorten the F-35’s service life.
The F-117’s service life was shortened because Jimmy Carter felt obliged to explain why he cancelled the B-1. It would shortly be replaced by radar-invisible planes. This gave the Russians a head’s up and they began networking radars, which rendered the F-117 visible and therefore useless a decade ahead of when it would otherwise have become so. Notice also that the F-117 frames were removed from inventory long before they were worn out. This is because the ONLY advantage they had was invisibility gained at the expense of speed and maneuverability. The same could happen to the F-35. That would be one very expensive loss.