I am one of the biggest proponents of the F-35 and strongly contend that it is without a doubt, the best gen5 fighter plane the skies will see. Hell, it's even better than gen4 or gen4++ aircrafts. Let's start with the biggest complaints
"It can't dog fight" This isn't Vietnam or the Gulf war, dog fighting stopped being relevant to air to air combat. I'm sorry to crush anyone dream of roping down commies with Goose, but it's about as relevant as trench warfare. Dog fighting is important for aircraft without smart munitions. Those that depend on poorly guided missiles or guns definitely need to dog fight. But todays smart munitions are so good, any airplane with enough maneuverability to dodge a missile would have to kill the pilot to do so. The current version of AMRAAMs are so good F/A-18 GAU guns are now glorified hood ornaments.
"It's expensive" It's literally cutting edge. The best stealth in the word. The best detection in the world. The best electronics in the world. The best software in the world. The best engine (yes it is) in the world. You're goddamn right it's going to be expensive. But here is the kicker, correcting for inflation, it's not actually outside of our normal expense growth curve. We already spend more (inflation corrected) each gen, so this is normal, and just something politicians like to complain about so they can pretend they give a fluff about our economy.
"The engine isn't the-" Yes it is. The F-35 is the ONLY WORKING GEN5 ENGINE IN THE WORLD. The Eurofighter is gen4, the F22 is gen4+, the SU37 is gen4++ (barely), the Ju35 is crap. The Russian gen5 engine blows up. The Chinese depend on the Russians. The Europeans didn't even try. The detection signature on this engine is tiny, while still having notable thrust.
Now let's go one about how the F-35 destroys other modern fighter jets. We established that dog fighting isn't a thing, it's all about missiles. Well the F-35 has unparalleled stealth capabilities, and a larger payload than the F-16, F/A-18, F-22, Eurofighter, SU-35, SU-37, and any Chinese fighter. What this means is that the F-35 can find, lock, and shoot any of those air planes BEFORE THEY EVEN KNOW WHERE THE F-35 IS.
"But those air planes can dodge with super maneuverability" Big whoop. You dodged 1 AMRAAM, too bad the F-35 hold way more than you, and as with ANY super maneuver you now have 0 velocity, 0 directionality, and fluff position. Would you like to wait for the follow up AMRAAM or do you just want to eject now? Hell you might as well crash to protect any intel you have.
We don't live gang-land style war where you just bump into each other. It's a tactical position that you hold, and with the F-35 in the air, you will be found, shot, and shot again before you even know where the fluffer is.
"But if you do need to dog fight-" you fluffing don't- "but if you do! In 1 on 1 battles-" Halt. The F-35 has another trick up its sleeve. It's a multi-role aircraft. Yes it can't be an A-10 or a B-2, but it can help them. So let's say you have a base that holds 20 planes. Normally you will need like 7 bombers and 5 attack planes to get a job done, which would leave 8 slots for fighters. Well since the F-35 is a multi-role can aid bombing/attacking runs you would only need like 5 bombers and 4 attack. Which means not you have 11 slots for fighters. So sure an F-22 can out dogfight 1 F-35, but in a realistic scenario, it needs to out dogfight 1.5 ish. And in a 2:3 fight, guess who wins? BINGO the F-35.
"you're just an arm-chair general" Ok sure, but I get this knowledge from actual generals (well, admirals) that I met at a convention on naval dominance.
TL;DR F-35 is awesome, fite me irl m8
good post on the topic imo. orig thread:
https://www.reddit.com/...ared_operational_heres_a/
a super hornet is about 60mill, adjusted F-35 per plane cost is 75-80. i cant remember. more than worth the extra loot no?