I Declare the Stealth F-35 the Best Fighter Jet on Earth

Key Points and Summary – The F-35 Lightning II’s true dominance lies not in traditional dogfighting metrics but in its revolutionary “brain.”

-It acts as a “quarterback in the sky,” a flying supercomputer that fuses data from an advanced suite of sensors like the 360-degree DAS system.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Kristen “Beo” Wolfe, F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team Commander with the 388th Fighter Wing, flies over the crowd during the Warriors Over the Wasatch Air and Space Show on June 25, 2022 at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Erica Webster)

-Its world-class stealth allows it to penetrate any defense, not just to attack, but to gather and share a complete tactical picture with the entire force, making every other asset more lethal.

-This information dominance, combined with its role as the backbone of a global, networked alliance, makes it the most revolutionary combat aircraft on the planet.

The F-35 Fighter Is Worth Every Single Penny 

In the heated debates that dominate the world of military aviation, no single aircraft has drawn more controversy than the F-35 Lightning II.

For years, it has been maligned as a trillion-dollar (or more) boondoggle, a machine too complex, too expensive, and too plagued by early development issues to be effective.

Critics often compare it to older fighters on outdated metrics like top speed and turn radius, declaring it a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.

But this entire narrative is built on a dangerously flawed premise. It judges a 21st-century weapon by 20th-century standards. Take it from me: the F-35 is, without question, the most dominant and revolutionary combat aircraft on Earth today.

Its genius lies not in its physical performance, but in its brain. It is not merely a fighter jet; it is the most advanced, survivable, and interconnected sensor node ever to take to the skies. It is an aerial quarterback, a ghost in the machine, and a force multiplier that fundamentally changes the nature of the battlefield.

Its cost, while staggering, is the price of a capability that no other nation on the planet can hope to match.

The Quarterback in the Sky: A Revolution in Information Warfare

To grasp the F-35’s supremacy, you must first abandon the idea that it is simply a platform for firing missiles.

Its single greatest attribute is sensor fusion.

The F-35 is a flying supercomputer designed to absorb an unprecedented amount of information, process it, and share it across the entire battlespace, making every other asset in the fight more lethal.

Israel’s F-35I Adir Fighter. Image credit: Creative Commons

The aircraft is equipped with a breathtakingly advanced suite of integrated sensors. Its APG-81 AESA radar can track and jam enemy targets with incredible precision. Its Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) provides long-range detection and targeting capabilities that would require bulky, drag-inducing pods on older fighters.

But its most revolutionary feature is the AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System (DAS)—a network of six infrared cameras mounted around the airframe that gives the pilot a 360-degree, god-like view of the world around them. The DAS can see everything from the heat signature of a ballistic missile launch hundreds of miles away to the muzzle flash of an anti-aircraft gun on the ground.

The magic is that the F-35’s powerful onboard processors take the data from all these systems and fuse it into a single, intuitive tactical picture. The pilot isn’t just looking at a radar screen; they are seeing a unified, real-time map of the battlespace projected directly onto their helmet visor.

They can literally “look through” the floor of their own cockpit and see the world below.

The F-35 Can Do It All 

Consider an example: A flight of four F-35s is tasked with penetrating a sophisticated enemy air defense network. They fly in complete electronic silence, their radars off. One F-35’s DAS detects the faint heat signature of a hidden surface-to-air missile (SAM) battery.

Without making a sound, that F-35 instantly shares the precise location of the SAM site across its secure Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) to the rest of the formation and to a Navy destroyer lurking 200 miles over the horizon.

A U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II performs during the Fairchild Skyfest 2024 airshow at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, June 23, 2024. Team Fairchild hosted the Skyfest 2024 airshow June 22 and 23 to thank the local community for their support and partnerships. During the event, attendees observed performances by the A-10 Thunderbolt II Demonstration team, Wings of Blue parachute team, UH-1N Huey and various other aerial acts, as well as static displays. Events like SkyFest allow communities within the Inland Northwest to witness U.S. military air capabilities and the Air Force’s premier air refueling wing in action. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Matthew Arachikavitz)

The destroyer, which could never have seen the target itself, launches a Tomahawk cruise missile using the F-35’s targeting data. The SAM site is destroyed by a weapon it never knew was coming, from a ship it couldn’t see, cued by a plane it couldn’t detect. That is not a dogfight; that is information dominance.

The F-35 is the quarterback, and it makes the entire team better.

A Ghost in the Machine: Redefining Stealth

The F-35’s ability to act as a sensor node is only possible because of its world-class stealth. While other nations have developed aircraft with low-observable features, the F-35 represents a generational leap in stealth technology. It was designed from the ground up for all-aspect, broadband stealth, meaning it is incredibly difficult to detect from any angle, not just head-on, and across a wide range of radar frequencies.

Its very shape is a masterpiece of low-observability, with carefully aligned edges, continuous curvature, and internal weapons bays that eliminate the radar-reflecting clutter of external bombs and missiles. Its skin is embedded with advanced radar-absorbent materials that are far more durable and easier to maintain than the delicate coatings of older stealth aircraft like the B-2.

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This comprehensive stealth is not just a defensive attribute; it is a profoundly offensive one. It allows the F-35 to get its powerful sensors into places no other tactical aircraft can go. It can slip deep into the most heavily defended airspace on the planet, map out the enemy’s entire air defense network, and share that intelligence with the rest of the force, creating safe corridors for less-stealthy aircraft to follow. It is a ghost that sees everything, a silent intruder that dismantles the enemy’s defenses from the inside out.

The Unseen Weapon: A Global Network of Allies

The F-35’s final, and perhaps most decisive, advantage is not technological, but geopolitical.

It was designed from its inception to be the backbone of a global alliance. With nearly twenty nations now operating or committed to purchasing the F-35, it creates a level of interoperability and shared capability that no adversary can hope to replicate.

F-35 Beast Mode. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

In a future conflict, American F-35s will be fighting alongside identical aircraft from the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and across NATO.

They will all be operating on the same secure network, sharing the same tactical picture, and employing the same tactics. This creates a powerful network effect, a unified fighting force that can coordinate actions across vast distances with a speed and coherence that is simply unprecedented.

China’s J-20 and Russia’s Su-57 are solitary predators. They are formidable aircraft, but they are part of closed, national systems with no true allies flying the same advanced platforms. The F-35 is the heart of a global, interoperable armada. This alliance structure is a force multiplier that cannot be matched by simply building more airframes.

The F-35 is, without question, an expensive weapon. But its cost must be measured against its revolutionary capability. It is not a mere fighter jet; it is a paradigm shift in air combat. It is a system that provides information dominance, guarantees access to the most contested environments on Earth, and binds America’s most important alliances together.

In the dangerous and complex world of the 21st century, that is a capability that is not just worth the price—it is priceless.

About the Author: Harry J. Kazianis

Harry J. Kazianis (@Grecianformula) is Editor-In-Chief and President of National Security Journal. He was the former Senior Director of National Security Affairs at the Center for the National Interest (CFTNI), a foreign policy think tank founded by Richard Nixon based in Washington, DC. Harry has over a decade of experience in think tanks and national security publishing. His ideas have been published in the NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and many other outlets worldwide. He has held positions at CSIS, the Heritage Foundation, the University of Nottingham, and several other institutions related to national security research and studies. He is the former Executive Editor of the National Interest and the Diplomat. He holds a Master’s degree focusing on international affairs from Harvard University.

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