The one thing that worries me about the F35 and the F22 is their heavy reliance on stealth. The enemy only has to make a couple of technological break throughs and a major aspect of these aircraft will be rendered obsolete very quickly..
I suspect that is why the F117 was with drawn from service rather abruptly..
It's rumored that the Russian S-400 missile system is a legitimate threat. Russia realized long ago they're never going to match our aircraft, so they've decided to make the best AA missile systems in the world; and they did.
As for stealth reliance. With the F-22 clearly stealth isn't a crutch, it can hold its own old school just fine. The F-35 isn't as capable, but it's darned near 1/4 the cost of the F-22 also. Sure it's not the greatest aircraft, but what's the alternative? Build more 4th generation aircraft? Well there's some logic to that, but you still have to have 5th generation aircraft as well. You have to move with technology or you'll get caught with your pants down. It has to have stealth technology, that's just the world today.
I'm not nearly as worried about the F-35 as others, because I know our military will make it work; because they have no choice. The F4 was a train wreck at first and we turned it into the pre-eminent fighter in the world, and I'm 100% confident that's what we'll do with the F-35.
If only the Marines would dump the jump jet concept, we could have saved billions.
