And separately, I posit that no uniformed decision maker (I will not include the politicians nor the few handwringers in this thread) in USAF, USN, RN, RAF, or the air arm of any nation bought the F-35 thinking it was an air superiority fighter.
Are you mincing words here, and defining "air superiority fighter" as "F-22-like aircraft that does nothing else"? Because nobody is saying that, nobody has said that, and you are using a strawman argument.
Or are you literally trying to say that these customers did not think that it was capable of air superiority missions (OCA, DCA, QRA air defense &c)? Because that is not true - which we know because almost all customers and partners plan to use the F-35 to replace aircraft that do those missions today.
So you are wrong either way, and your sneering references to "handwringers" simply indicates your contempt for anyone who disagrees with you.
Also: Do you not find it strange that most people have no problem understanding what I write and don't come away with the conclusion that I am trolling, changing position, ignoring points, and/or have an inherent bias toward US products and against European products?
This mystifies me somewhat, as there seems to be a large absence of people responding to your posts with "Attaboy, Ken!" and "Give those Limeys heck, dude!"
And BTW, your position from the other thread (Airbus MRTT is "Frankentanker" and KC-46 is not) has been rather undermined by Australia's decision to convert two used civil A330s into KC-30s. Try modding a 767 into a KC-46.
Enough already, since unlike CM I am not really aware of anything useful you have brought to this discussion. I wave my wand, engage my ignore filter and
TROLLICULUS EFFOFFITUS!
(Kennie whinges about how "mature" this response is in 5-4-3....)