"Nope, it's shortcomings are publicly documented. It can't dogfight, maneuver, has terrible visibility, bad systems," None of that is actually true, especially

"Nope, it's shortcomings are publicly documented. It can't dogfight, maneuver, has terrible visibility, bad systems," None of that is actually true, especially the "terrible visibility" part. In fact, it's the only aircraft flying with literally 2 pi steradian (the full sphere around it) visibility. The author of the linked article has a vendetta against the F-35. There are legitimate criticisms, and he outlines some of them - they don't mean it won't be an effective system within a few more years. Could the procurement have been done more effectively? Of course, and I hope future procurements learn a lot from the problems of the F-35 effort. In particular, there has to be a realistic plan to incorporate technology improvements during the development process! I'm also dismayed that computer modeling didn't predict issues like the weak wingtips of the F-35C. All that said, how about a little balance from people who've actually flown the plane in simulated combat...? This pilot flew the F-35B against F-16s and F-18s: "Mo: I was leading a four ship of F-35s on a strike against 4th Gen adversaries, F-16s and F/A-18s. We fought our way in, we mapped the target, found the target, dropped JDAMs on the target and turned around and fought our way out. All the targets got hit, nobody got detected, and all the adversaries died. I thought, yes, this works, very, very, very well. Never detected, nobody had any idea we were out there." You can read many more complimentary words at the link: http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-f-35-was-something-extraordinary/ http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-... "not enough ammo in a gun it won't be able to use for years, and can't carry the most useful bombs yet." The gun will almost never be a combat factor. As to the "most useful bombs", there is always something new isn't there...? The baseline SDB-1s are plenty useful in their own right, along with the various JDAMs and other munitions available.