Have to disagree with you on this one, GH. LETHALITY is everything, and the F-35 is nothing if not lethal.

Hard to be lethal if you are SLOW.
The money spent on the TURD F-35 should have been spent on more F-22s.
F-22 clears the way then F-15Es, B-2s, B-52s, A-10s, F-16s, B-1s, and F-18s destroy the rest.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

The stand-off weapons that they carry make them so formidable--and keep them safe. When actual penetration of enemy territory is needed (usually in less-developed and less-well-armed--or radar-equipped--places, and such missions are seldom needed), they go in low, using the terrain to hide from from all but fleeting visual, radar, and/or infrared detection. Even if such a bomber is seen zipping across a valley, after it's out of the valley's sight, it can "make like a cruise missile" and change flight direction frequently. Also:

If a modern, improved air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) is developed, it will make the large subsonic jet bomber a "flying ICBM silo field." (If not for an extraordinary string of bad luck in its test flights, the Douglas GAM-87 Skybolt [see: https://www.google.com/search?q=sky...chrome&ie=UTF-8 ] would have been our first ALBM; the B-52 could carry four, on two under-wing double pylons, and the British Vulcan strategic bombers would each have carried two Skybolts.)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR