BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS: American Gripen: The Solution To The F-35 Nightmare. David Archibald, on the state of modern fighting aircraft, finds the Swedish Gripen superior to the F-35 in nearly all respects.

While [the F22] is a fabulous fighter when it is flying, it is too costly to fly. F-22 pilots are restricted to 10 to 12 hours in the air per month due to an operating cost of $58,000 per hour, the Air Force simply can’t afford more than that.

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The U.S. Air Force has been worshipping at the altar of stealth for over three decades, since the F-117 became operational in 1983. … So an Su-35 can see a F-35 well before the F-35 can detect it. Stealth, as an end in itself, has outlived its usefulness…

Right at the moment the U.S. Air Force is heading for a repeat to the start of World War 2 when its fighters got shot down by far better Axis aircraft.

Simulation has the Gripen E shooting down the Su-35 at almost the same rate that the F-22 does. The Gripen E is estimated to be able to shoot down 1.6 Su-35s for every Gripen E lost, the F-22 is slightly better at 2.0 Su-35s shot down per F-22 lost. In turn the Su-35 is better than the F-35, shooting down 2.4 F-35s for each Su-35 shot down. The Su-35 slaughters the F-18 Super Hornet at the rate of eight to one…