R755
I tried and tried to resist responding, but when I realized you were actually being serious when you said 'expert commentary available at Air Power Australia' I couldn't help myself...
The airframe is not small. Its empty weight is 30-35 000lb depending on which model you're talking about. So it's comparable to or slightly heavier than an F-15E. I've never heard anyone call the Strike Eagle small.
It carries between 14 - 20 000lb of fuel internally. Compared to a Sea Harrier's 5000lb, or a legacy F-16's 7500lb, of internal fuel that's a pretty reasonable figure don't you think?
In a stealthy fit, it carries 2 x 2000lb JDAM (or 1000lb ones if you're in a -B), and 2xAIM-120 internally, which is more than an F-117 could. It's far more likely to be carrying 8 x Small Diameter Bombs in the future, which is more than any aircraft of comparable size out there can carry internally.
If you hang a bunch of external stores on it then you're correct, the top speed goes down and the radar cross-section goes up. But even the chimps at Air Power Australia understand that you wouldn't start hanging external stores on it until you'd achieved air dominance.
There have been a number of single-engined aircraft that have had quite successful service lives. Sopwith Camel, Fokker Eindecker, Spitfire, Mustang, Fw-190, F-86, Mig-15, F-100, F-8, Mig-21, A-7, F-16, Gripen, Rafale and many, many more. I'm not sure but I think Pratt & Witney have done a few careful sums to figure out how hot they can run their engine.
How did your war-gaming get to the point where all F-35s will start all of their engagements with Sukhois in a fuel critical state, with no weapons and trying to outrun them in a straight race? Did you consider the possibility that a stealthy F-35 might have side-stepped the Sukhoi before he even saw him, or (and this is a crazy notion) he may have positioned himself to take a face shot on the Sukhoi? Or, an equally crazy notion is that if he does think he's likely to get tangled up the F-35 pilot may have a wingman or 2 (possibly F-22s or Typhoons even) and will be calling for a de-louse long long before the Sukhoi gets in his shorts.
Regards,
Single Seat, Single Engine, The Only Way To Fly