SAAB have a plane in development that carries halfish the armament that the F35 does and has less range than the F35B...
So the F-35 can carry 8 x AAMs and 4 x LGBs? Wake me up when that happens.
As for range, given that the F-35B has about the same internal fuel fraction as the Gripen, but even if it ever gets external tanks has about the same external fuel in pounds (on an aircraft twice the size) I would be interested to know how it gets better range.