The F-16 is NOT more maneuverable than the F-35. Nor is it faster in any realistic sense.
Modern aircraft in their ability in to turn isn't determined by wing loading as much. This is due to something called "fuselage lift" which lowers their wing loading value. Also lifting bodies generated from chines also improves lift in general. This is why the F-16 and the F-15 were able to crash, get a wing taken off, and still fly back home with a missing wing. The F-16 in general has a high wing loading compared to lets say a Vietnam F-4, however it gets the good manuverability due to the low drag and also fuselage lift(while the F-4 is rather a bad turner)
The F-35 and F-16 have around similar accelaration, however the F-35 has a higher angle of attack like the Super Hornet. So the F-35 is designed to be like a F-16/F-18 hybrid in terms of maneuverability.
https://theaviationist.com/2016/03/...g-in-the-f-35-a-jsf-pilot-first-hand-account/
The F-35 has a max speed of Mach 1.6....while loaded. This is since all it's fuel and weapons are loaded internally to keep stealth.(no drag) The F-16 however loads it's fuel tanks and weapons externally. So is the F-16 going Mach 2 while loaded? It can probably barely even reach Mach 1.4 with the air resistance hitting it's tanks and wings.
The F-35 can probably be defeated by a Eurofighter, an F-22, or an advanced Russian Sukhoi in dogfighting, just not the F-16 and F-18.
F-16 would be destroyed in ground attack compared to F-35 against any modern threat. The Iranians will soon be getting advanced IADS from the Russians namely the S-300 and S-400 missiles. The computers on the F-35 are all fused to have all the sensor feeds and datalinks operating in real time in a advanced wifi, so every F-35 gets to see the same picture and coordinate and plan a lot better while the F-16 is pretty much stuck with a datalink of the Cold War. Imagine using internet of the 90s, it will suck. Also with advanced computer processing you can get a lot better jamming tech to find enemy emissions and suppress them, the F-16 needs seperate tiny pods for jamming, and has only internal flares and chaff as countermeasures. Also since the F-35 has a 360 vision, it can spot missile launches all around the aircraft and cued to the helmet. Add that to the F-35 with stealth and you get a big plus.
Well, there is one gigantic 'IF" in this report.
'They also performed in an air-to-air role: although we don’t know the ROE (Rules of Engagement) in place for the drills nor the exact role played by the F-22 Raptors that teamed up with the Lightning II throughout the exercise,'
The F-22 is - apparently - much stealthier than the F-35 and is a FAR better dogfighter. Now if it was helping the F-35 and not the other aircraft, that could throw a gigantic edge to the F-35.
I am not saying the F-35 is not the better combat plane (I assume it is). But there is too much unknown information to fully determine how indicative this report is.
Well the F-22 is a better air superiority fighter absolutely. The clear advantages of the F-35 shown in this excercise to preform both air-air and air-ground at the same time is shown. This wasn't the only excericse by the way.....there were exercises were F-35 have taken on F-15Es 8-0 and still survived.
I wish we can have more F-22s, but they have proven rather expensive at only 187 is needed currently. A lot of the F-22 technology is built in the Cold War and it's very difficult to upgrade them, add that with a lack of a threat and it got it's production cut. The F-35 has a better modern wifi system which can make a swarm of them good enough for any threat add that with the ground attack capabilities and you get a good investment. It's not just speed that determines victory, but information. Once you have a very good wifi system, you can link multiple platforms better, guide missiles from warships etc. In an air superiority platform, the slower, but more advanced F-35's with their advanced sensors would feed information with real time datalinks to faster F-15s and F-22s to guide their missiles, in a "Hunter-Killer" doctrine.
