... The performance is only equivalent to that of the F-16 ..
Wrong, simply wrong,.
... and the value of it's stealth performance against recent radars and SAW is increasingly questioned. ...
"Is increasingly questioned" by anonymous amateurs on the Iternet and by Av. Week scribblers who don't know anything technical to write about in any depth. Stealth skeptics --> citoyens of countries with no stealthy aircraft. ( Bill Sweetman -- a Brit expat? )
...
Similarily, there are those in the USAF who would prefer to buy more F-15Es and reopen the F-22 line for AD aircraft.
No, you don't understand. The F-35 is to the F-22 as the F-16 is to the F-15. The two single-engine aircraft are designed to have higher wing loading and therefore better performance at lower altitudes than their twin-engined team mates. In some respects, F-22's are not as good as F-35A's at lower altitudes.
This is a basic point that the Karlo Kopp Klaque and tail number spotters posting on the Internet don't grasp.
Air Force magazine says the USAF would like to re-open the F-22 line? There's a back issue of Air Force mag that sez the Air Force would like to re-open the B-2 final assembly plant at Palmdale! Hasn't happened yet.
The only force wedded to the F-35 are the USMC
Wrong again, the Air Force is very loyally wedded to the F-35A.