Here's the thing, the A-10 gun is only useful against light targets, so it would often just be a bomb/missile truck. F-16 started out as a nimble fighter but ul

Here's the thing, the A-10 gun is only useful against light targets, so it would often just be a bomb/missile truck. F-16 started out as a nimble fighter but ultimately became a much heavier multi role. The F-18's are also multi roles often used as bomb/missile trucks. The AV-8B were multi role but had huge limitations in range and weight. The F35 is shaping up to be better than all. Now that it's software limitations have been pushed further it is shaping up to be quite a nimble aircraft[1]. Especially since the legacy fighters have to carry external weapons which add drag. It has superior high AoA to all four. It has better range and payload capacity than all of the aircraft it replaces. A new 100% purpose built aircraft for each role maybe could perform better but as it stands the F-35's shaping up to still be better than the aircraft it replaces. And now reaching $77.9M for Lot 14's the F-35A variant is cheaper than just about any other western modern fighter jet. The legacy jets it replaces also experienced serious issues early in their programs and were decried in the media as boondoggles[3]. They're now considered to be excellent jets. To really hit the point harder, the only F-22's, which is an air superiority fighter, combat missions and kills have been acting in ground attack missions. The F-15 which is also an air superiority fighter had an entire variation of it later built called the F-15E Strike Eagle which turned it into a multi role bomb/missile truck. In case I'm not making it clear, for all the variation that exists in different possible roles for jets they tend to usually end up centering in doing a lot of the same same work. That's why the F-35 is ultimately going to be very successful. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0hWzaKEeZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0hWzaKEeZo [2]: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2019-10-30/lm-receives-7b-f-35-order-f-35a-price-dips-below-80m https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2019-10-30/l... [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkrtxDdaWuM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkrtxDdaWuM