patrick.net

As much as there are detractors to the plane, and they have been continuously vocal against it; with a handful of F-35s you totally dominate the airspace.

There ain't crap any enemy can do about it.

Yes, they are that good, and now we can build them in quantity.

I worked for Lockheed for a while, and so did my wife while the F-35 was under development. I remember they would boast of huge developments if the F-35 took off or some dumb shit. My response was, this plane has been in development for 15+ years (at the time) now and it's just now taking off?

A collosal waste of $$$. Lockheed is killing the taxpayer.

What's crazy is the F22 was actually crazy badass, and that program was cancelled.

Yes, it has been expensive, but now we can build them in quantity.

The detractors will be vocal against us building them.

Forbes was sold out to a company in China. Just to let you know where that article came from.

So, what's the truth, has it failed or not?

WineHorror1 says

So, what's the truth, has it failed or not?

It fails in dog fights, Russia and China, which both Bush and Obama saw fit, that they could hack our systems and steal our secrets on it. Have actually taken our design and improved upon them. While making something that resembles F-35, they aren't as advanced weapons and electronics wise, but they are more agile. They both can take our F-35 out in a close range combat.

So we changed our expectations for it. It is no longer lauded as a stealth fighter jet. Rather its battle worth can detect the enemy planes hundreds of miles away, and take them out before they even know the F-35 even exists.

Tenpoundbass says

Rather its battle worth can detect the enemy planes hundreds of miles away, and take them out before they even know the F-35 even exists.

That is the strategy of the old Navy F-14 Tomcat. Its radar could detect planes 200 miles away, and the Phoenix missiles it carried had a 86 mile range. Thus, in its day, it could take out Soviet aircraft long before the Soviet aircraft even detected the threat.

Tenpoundbass says

It fails in dog fights,

If it were about "dog fights," the best bet would to be to build a very high performance unmanned fighter. Such a plane could out g any fighter that is limited by the human in the cockpit. Just sent it up to shoot down anything not squawking the right IFF code.

HeadSet says

If it were about "dog fights," the best bet would to be to build a very high performance unmanned fighter. Such a plane could out g any fighter that is limited by the human in the cockpit. Just sent it up to shoot down anything not squawking the right IFF code.

Manned fighter planes have been obsolete since the 1990s. What's being built now has nothing to do with defense, it has to do with money procurement for the "defense" industry.