If, and I say IF all the "gee whiz" stuff works and all that, it will probably be a pretty good fighter eventually. The Aim 9x just needs to be pointed in the general direction of the enemy so maneuvering won't be that important. But as the war game scenario showed, what happens when we have a numerically superior enemy and we use up all the missiles? The F-35 is AT BEST merely equal to a 40 year old F-16 in close in fighting. There are many designs that surpass it in that respect. It would seem to me that the logical thing would have been to design a top rated airframe second to none and THEN add the "gee whiz" stuff instead of relying on so many brand new technologies. Without them or if they don't work, it is a dog.
And this approach might work if we considered the F-35 to be the high end of a high/low mix with current fighters. The F-35 works in conjunction with them and handles lots of the BVR stuff while they handle the close work. But it is absolutely stupid when you consider that the F-35 is supposed to be the low of the high/low mix to the F-22's high and all of our other aircraft are about to fall out of the sky because they have been used so hard and all the money is going to the F-35 program.
