>>63837991
He's absolutely right though. The F35 has some advantages for where it can operate from which make it great for multirole/defensive missions but it continues a range issue even in the C variant that puts carriers at risk and it would be pushed to fly missions over Taiwan from Japan/Korea.

It's the perfect jet otherwise to shit on North Korea or at a push nuke Russia from friendly bases. But there's a reason Japan is working on a jet with a much longer range.