Legendary pilot Chuck Yeager gave his take on the F-35 the other day in 3 terse words on twitter...
"waste of money"
Still many doubters about it out there, but its hard to not be swayed by recent reports like the ones coming out the Red Flag event where they absolutely dominated everything, including SAM sites
https://theaviationist.com/2016/07/1...rs-every-time/
http://www.geek.com/news/f-35-pilots...althy-1665077/
It certainly has been slow in coming, but lately it looks like once they eventually get the expected sensor, data fusion capabilities and flight performance upgrades, it'll almost be like a ghost... "you cant fight what you cant see"