It's amazing how well it holds its own in air to air considering its primarily a ground attack aircraft.
Every fighter has its strengths and weaknesses - the F35 weaknesses have been overplayed and very few have commented on its strengths, for good reason. The stability of the F35 and its remarkable precise and controllable handling well into high angle of attack regime is a huge plus.
The F35 is a superior weapons platform. What it may or may not lack in raw capabilities at the edge, it compensates for in user friendliness, usability and effectiveness in practical situations.
Disruptive advances in air defense systems are a major concern and very realistic threat. F35 does have a vision of what that future might look like in a high threat, highly networked airspace occupied by piloted and semi autonomous drones and carrying advanced weapons and countermeasures to deal with the threats
Its a pretty darn good vision.
Future weapons and fuel load outs for an individual F 35 may not be limited to what can be loaded onto the airframe and may not even originate from the same location. If you think about it, the concept provides some novel and intriguing ways to counter both air to air and ground to air threats
Any new or updated fighter or strike fighter airframe will incorporate much of the F 35 avionics functionality and thats where the money goes so costs will be similar for alternatives if we kill F 35
At its heart, F35 is a first day ground attack aircraft intended to decapitate enemy air defense and C3 systems and eliminate high threat weapons systems before they can be used against our troops - or our civilian population for that matter.
On day 2 forwards its whatever it needs to be including a pretty nice mini AWACs for other earlier generation aircraft
Its like 2or3 F117s on steroids combined with 95% of an F-16 with some features lifted out a number of science fiction movies and thats not a bad place to be.
Its primary limitation will always be internal fuel capacity. Short legs in full on stealth mode will dog the plane for its entire operational life but this can be dealt with. FWIW, this same problem limits most of the competing aircraft as well
Thank you for that post.