I had a low opinion of the F35 until recently. I have no personal knowledge of any airplane, much less a fighter jet, and my opinion was based solely on what I had read in the media. Then, I happened to have lunch with two recently retired F16 pilots, both of whom had combat experience. Their conversation turned to the F35, and, based on what I had heard of the plane, I misinterpreted what they were saying. I asked why was it so bad? They were a bit startled by my question and told me the F35 was so good, it made combat with other fighters like "clubbing baby seals". Those were their exact words. Again, I cannot give specifics to support their statement, but considering their experience, I give a lot of weight to their opinion and have one more reason to distrust the media.
Get back to them when their guns and radars work. Not to mention when they fix the problem of nearly killing the pilot when launched off carriers ... They can club baby seals with them but that’s about how far it goes, until the Navy comes up with funds and plans to fix the myriad of problems, which as of now do not exist.
Back in the mid-60’s the US Navy was considering a radical alternative to the Fleet Defense problem, the Douglas F6D Missilier. The plane was essentially a non-maneuverable “missile-truck” designed to loiter with it’s missiles at the fringes of the CVBG and shoot down any hostile aircraft.
There were technical problems with missile performance, aircraft identification, and so forth that we still grapple with today that killed the Missilier. What we got instead were the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat — both of those aircraft were classic high-speed interceptors at their inception, and retained a degree of ACM capability.
The F-35 has an extremely advanced radar, capable of simultaneous air to air, air to ground, and active ECM, that is tied into all aspect EO/IR cameras, a targeting camera, and ESM. All of that data flows to the pilot via a 10x20 color display and helmet mounted visor. The capabilities of how to employ a system like this even outstrip my imagination, after a 20 year career in Navy fighters.
Pilots love shiny new things, but they also have fierce loyalty to their current airframes. When people tell you candidly it's a game changer, I tend to believe them.