One would have hoped that having had an extra three years at least to polish the product up for its IOC that it would be gaining plaudits from all comers, sadly it would seem that this is not the case.
Indeed, there is much to be sad about the F-35 program. No one can deny that. As for "gaining plaudits", there's lot and lots of that as well and there are a few here who insist on ignoring and/or denying those many plaudits (Or more ominously, make personal attacks on those who provide those plaudits.) And no, its gained no plaudits for being a stellar close-in dog fighter. But the point remains, it was never intended to be. And that's what this discussion is all about. You can (rightly) dredge up all the past and present programmatic difficulties, but that does not alter the fact one iota that the F-35 is not nor ever was intended to be an air superiority fighter, contrary to the claims being made by some in this thread.