I remember some media hit pieces on the Bradley IFV. That machine has proven to be a war winning success.
I remember some female reformist getting a tour of the M-1 Abrahms and reporting the seat was installed wrong. No one bothered to tell her she had to push a button to adjust the seat just as in a car...or they didn’t tell her on purpose.
I used to be a critic of the F-35 until I came to the realization a couple of years back that, based on likely use, it will be an overwhelming success. An astounding success.
Why?
Well, simply look at the countries that the West has been engaged in armed conflict with over the last several decades (probably going all the way back to WW2). None of them have been near-peer adversaries of the nature that Germany and the Axis gave to the US and the Allies. Looking at just the US we have the likes of Panama, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Viet Nam, Somalia, Bosnia, Dominican Republic, Grenada and Kosovo.
In most of those cases the good guys were a coalition (whether it is the Dominican Republic or the Gulf War), and the good guys also have tremendous qualitative (good equipment and training) and quantitative (overall numbers) advantages over the bad guys.
Result, a significant overhang on the likelihood of victory. In such a scenario, equipment doesn't really matter that much, and anyway, the F-35 will be better than 99% of equipment out there (and 100% of what may be utilized by the likely target countries). For example, in the Libya conflict, the US could have been using upgraded F-4 Phantoms, F-8 Crusaders and A-7 Corsairs and still had the same result as using F-15Es and Raptors. Against the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Afganistan, Panama and Somalia ...warmed-over WW2 P-47 Thunderbolts would have been more than sufficient.
That may seem a tad tongue in cheek, but I am bloody serious! It is doubtful that the West (and the same I've written about the US could be applied to any other of the major Western countries ...e.g. France's use of Rafales in the Libya conflict could have easily been replicated with early 90s Mirages) will ever be in a major conflict with a near-peer adversary (i.e. China and/or Russia), and thus the F-35 will be absolutely perfect against any of the 'usual suspects.'
To be honest with you, the only REAL challenge will only be if a conflict comes out between, say, Turkey and Greece (e.g. similar to the 1996 incident where a Greek Mirage 2000 shot down a Turkish F-16) or between India and Pakistan. A Greek-Turkey or India-Pakistan dust up is the only scenario I can see where leading aircraft can be brought against each other in a manner where the outcome may be debatable.
In every other scenario, it will be an overwhelming mismatch, and thus the F-35 will be absolutely amazing and will have a great track record. It will be a war-winning success, and the chances of a F-35 being sent over Shanghai airspace is zero.
Why?
Because even going after the likes of Iran and North Korea is off the table, thus it would be a hard sell to convince me the West would ever go after the likes of Russia and China. Russia could take the whole of Ukraine, and China the whole of Taiwan, and the most you'd look at is sanctions. You can take that to the bank!
I’ve still got a book on my shelf that predicts the F-15 will be a colossal failure...