For a modern military, in a general sense, yes, the F35 is the best currently. Mostly due to it’s software and sensor suite which have a much larger impact on mission performance. It’s built to an assumption of US support, which means good runways and resilient supply lines. Russian fighters are out for the same reason US fighters should be out right now (can’t trust the government).

Canada is looking for new fighters, where I think the Gripen is actually better than the F35 for our specific use case (almost entirely defensive, rough runways in arctic conditions that the F35 struggles with, need for lower maintenance requirements due to manpower and budget issues). The Swedes deal with the same conditions we need a fighter for, plus they offered a full tech transfer to revitalize our aerospace industry and help achieve autonomy for operation of the Gripen.

Fewer than will if they continue to do nothing.

Have you been paying like… literally any attention to US corpo activities lately? Fraud is not only not being punished, but actively rewarded, so long as you bend the knee to Trump, which Google has.

I keep catching reddit bans for calling Trump a pedophile lol. Really tells you where their moderation is at these days.