You must have missed the USAF Lt. Col in front of Hank Griffith’s name, and mistaken him for a LM employee, or that it was an article in Aviation Week, and not a LM press release.
There’s gonna be a tin foil shortage soon, with all of these conspiracies be tossed about.

F-35 will not drop its a2g payload it if its engaged in a a2a fight?

It’s not likely. Like has been mentioned before, one of the selling points is the F-35’s agility, while carrying weapons.

A2A missiles are not a big influence on drag or turning.

Especially after you fire off a few of your long range AAMs before any merge.

Any bombs would be jettisoned if a furball was developing.

You are making illogical arguments to try and make the F-35 look good.

It depends on the type of carriage, to whether there’s much penalty from the AAM(and pylons). If the foe forces you to drop your bombs, then your mission was unsuccessful. I am making statements that aren’t trying to be disengenuous. You’re entitled to your opinion- it just doesn’t happen to be shared by most Air Forces.

Ahh, back to that old chestnut are we?

1. The F-35 will not be able to avoid the dogfight. Long wavelength radar will localise the F-35 enough to allow vectoring of OpFor air assets to the area.

2. Assuming a 2025 environment (i.e. Gen 4+), these assets will acquire the F-35 using IR means, if not by AESA means.

3. They will be able to dictate the nature of the fight by being able to start their missile launches from a higher energy state (due to the F-35s tardy top speed).

4. They have more missiles for greater combat persistence, so can ripple fire if needs be (Unless you want to sacrifice that precious “stealth”?).

5. Upon the merge, the F-35 will not only be mission killed, it will be actually killed due to its comparative lack of maneuverability.

1- what’s the proliferation of these long wave radars, and what do you suppose their life expectancy will be, once hostilities commence.

2- if it’s a non-VLO aircraft, the F-35 will spot it first. If it’s a VLO aircraft, with a higher RCS than the F-35, the F-35 will spot it first.

3. Unless they have first look, which isn’t a given, it’s not a given that they will have a speed advantage. It’s also unlikely that they’ll be taking BVR shots.

4. There aren’t many scenarios where a foe will have numerical advantages, and the VLO fighter aided by ECM/EA will likely enjoy higher PKs than a non-stealthy aircraft.

5. If the foe survives BVR, and merges, it will still have to deal with an agile fighter, with the ability to engage targets in all hemispheres, so it’s still not a given that a mission kill/kill will be the case.

Hey there smoker!
Have you ever wonder why internal bombays are rare on supersonic AC:s?
And external loads is used?
Total RCS is the no 1 key factors for going fast, add a boxy aerodynamics to that does not help.
A “clean” F-35 isnt “clean”, its a big box with a big engine to compensate for that.

The first 2 mach birds, those are super “clean” when clean, adding a small tank and AAM did not suffer that much as a big boxy housing for bombs and fuel adds to the total RCS did in the first place. Thats why F-104, Mig-21 and Draken looks the way it does, and dont use internal loads, and internal Bomb was abandoned until F-22.

Internal bombs isnt new, but only used in low-speed systems.

Once you start hanging ordinance on these “clean” fighters, then that “boxy” F-35 has the aerodynamic advantage, both in straight lines and when turning.

It wouldn’t make sense not to integrate JDAMs. It’s a huge hindrance to only be able engage targets in clear weather, so the laser can designate.

I’m certain you are clutching at straws.
Medium level is only viable if you can suppress the air defence to allow it.
When the Buccs were used to designate for the Tornados that had happened.
Prior to that medium level was suicide. It still is until you suppress the air defence.
The F35 as intended to be operated by the US will be supported by electronic warfare and intelligence assets to allow it to operate at medium level.
Even when (if?) the F35 is operated by the UK we will not have the supporting cast the US will (need to) employ, so it is still not a viable tactic for the UK.
The RAF will not be striking targets such as those in the first days of the Gulf conflict from medium level with LGBs anytime soon.

The point of the F-35 is that it detect/engage targets from outside of their WEZs, which is why medium altitude is viable vs a Tornado, which can be seen from hundreds of miles away.