Is this true or utter nonesne.

4 hours ago, goates said:

As the F-22 and F-35 are so good in the air, any smart opponent is going to do everything they can to change the rules and hit them where they're weakest. You can see this with China and their missile programs. There won't be a safe airbase to operate from within range of the Chinese mainland, or Taiwan, and it won't be safe to operate a carrier very close either. Similarly, they have been working on long air to air missiles to knock out AWACS and tankers. Not mention other potential threats like a few special forces destroying them on the ground. So sure, the F-35 can kill everything in the air, but it still has to be in the right place to do it.

There are two observations I would make on that point. One, without question China is investing a lot in area denial weapons such as hypersonic missiles which is in part an implied acknowledgment of the lethality of platforms such as the F-22 and F-35, which will soon be available in significant numbers. It’s a recognition that currently neither their air force nor their SAM defenses would be a sufficient deterrent. Two, despite that, they recognize the value of stealth aircraft and sensor fusion because they are expending significant efforts to design and manufacture their own. 
 

Aircraft such as the F35 aren’t the end all be all of warfare, but at least in the foreseeable future manned aircraft are a necessary “tool in the tool box,’’ and for what it’s designed for is along with the F22 far and away the best tool at what they do (and are the envy of adversaries). If there is a complaint or flaw is that while it is unrivaled in deployment against near peer adversaries in a high threat environment (which is of increasing concern) it may be expensive overkill in primitive low threat environments, the wrong tool for the job. It’s like going to the store, buying an expensive cordless drill with a 24v lithium ion battery, charging it, and an hour later when it’s finally charged using it to change a switch plate as opposed to using the $1 flathead screwdriver I keep in a drawer. Sometimes cheaper and simpler is more effective depending on the situation. I don’t think that makes the F35 a failure or unnecessary, it’s just that when budgets are finite, sometimes you need some more flat head screwdrivers.

Now on the other hand, it is a fair criticism to observe how US defense contractors IMO bilk and overcharge the government for their goods and services, with the amount of bilking seemingly directly proportionate to how desired a particular weapons platform is by the military, but that is endemic to the procurement process generally  and not unique to the F35.