It wasn’t designed to be an air superiority fighter but it has the weapons and systems capability to go on the offensive from an air to air perspective,
I definitely skimped out on a lot of stuff in my original post because “Beautiful Saturday morning rush posts trying to something something something....”
The F-35 will see continued development throughout it’s lifespan like all fighters. Just like the F-16 went from a simple airshow queen that was dead in any BVR fight to a multirole fighterbomber with lots of reach. Just like the F-15, originally a flawed superiority fighter with shit engines and plenty of issues is…
Holy shit someone that actually gets it.