From what I have heard, the F-35 doesn’t stand a chance against an F-16 in head to head combat.
“From what I have heard, the F-35 doesn’t stand a chance against an F-16 in head to head combat.”
You have heard wrong... :-)
A contrived, close-in dogfight is far different from modern air combat with BVR weapons. In a literally head-on encounter at a range of 30+ miles, the F-16 would be an easy target for an AMRAAM, while its own AMRAAMs would be unable to acquire the F-35.
That is not to say that the F-35 is perfect in its present form, but it has plenty of potential to be a worthy successor to the F-16 and F-18.
We could use plenty more F-22 class planes, but that’s a different story.