“Eastwood says that the F-35 has better stealth attributes than the J-20, with the latter being unable to see the former until a missile lock.”
LOL, and the F-35 in the photo at the top of the article isn’t even slightly stealth. It has to dirty sidewinders hanging on two dirty pods out on the wingtips. It’ll show up like a dirty F-16. And the F-35 “stealth” on a clean 35 is only from the front.
Take away stealth and it’s a slower less maneuverable fighter with a gun installed as an afterthought with a whole 180 rounds (3 seconds of ammo).
That picture was from a recent airstrike by U.S. Air Force F-35s in northeastern Iraq. The planes involved carried AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles on their wingtips, but in this particular instance the F-35s didn’t have to worry about being detected by radar.
Normally, the missiles are stored in an internal weapons bay. So stealth is still a thing they have.