We’re on horrifically slow DSL and so is our next door neighbor who is a current USAF brigadier who likes to talk to my husband, a retired USMC ‘light bird’ of 25 years service. I listen and I would think the man knows what he’s talking about.
Don’t you worry. You have it right. Ignore him and ask anyone who has used close air support. You’ll find that your opinion is about right.
The 35 is a monument to procurement corruption and to careerist officers.
I don’t necessarily blame you. This is no different than the election of Obama. When people are only offered one point of view, it’s no surprise that most of them take it.
I’m not trying to be a commercial for how wonderful the F-35 is. I work at a base that supports military aircraft. I work literally side-by-side with uniformed military on a daily basis. I have personal friends in the F-22 and F-35 program directorates who can’t even tell me what the capabilities are due to OPSEC and so much of it is restricted for security reasons. But I’ve sees the F-35 do things that would make your hair stand up. And it has sensors that make an E-8 JSTARS jealous.
You’re (obviously) free to have your own opinions, just be careful what you read in the paper. The F-22 was total garbage until it started showing what it can do at airshows. The F-117 was garbage until it completely devastated an entire country’s military without getting so much as a scratch. The F-14 was a piece of crap until it started shooting down top-of-the-line Russian jets without even breaking a sweat. The F-15 was an overpriced dog but here we are 40 years later and the F-15 has taken ZERO losses in combat. They told us that the AWACS was total junk and it turned out to be the single greatest development in air combat since the invention of radar. Bottom line: the media LIES.