Agree.
We should stay away from the F-35 from the simple reason that this flying iPad with missiles is 100% in control of USA. Thus selling the plane to the Saudis is no biggie. If they (Saudis) misbehave, the us can just activate the kill switch. It's naive to think it doesn't have such a feature.
That flying iPad as you call it, is a masterpiece and technologically the most developed fighter aircraft currently in use. As per
@YusufKnight ‘s post just above, even if you have a slightly downgraded version of this plane you will still get so much technical information that it will open your horizons when fighting against airforces that already use it as well as help you develop technologies without much guesswork.
That advantage alone is worth having them in spite of any possible downsides the plane comes with.
These planes don’t need to have a kill switch. They need continuous supply of very high tech spares (not like F14 or F5 need). They can not be operated if you don’t have specifically integrated US made munitions in hand.
So only thing US needs to do is stop shipping parts. Then you have very expensive museum pieces in your inventory that you can only watch and admire.
Buying these in excess of 100 pieces would have been the stupid thing to do. But a squadron or maximum 2 will be the right thing to do though. Especially when we have KAAN coming along in the pipeline.
