F-35 has a few very strong points. For instance it has best available radar and other sensors, so for a country that does not have dedicated AWACS plane, it can serve as (not so) poor man AWACS. Being somewhat stealth and being able to carry JASSM/JASSM-ER missiles it is useful for the not so great army that want to attack the opponent on the opponent's territory (not really US army use case...).<p>F-35 sounds like a good solution for, say, Poland, since Polish F-35 (Harpias) maneuvering unnoticed near Belorussian border will be able to attack Russian forces, supply lines all the way to the Smolensk Gate (50-mile-wide territory between the Dzwina and Dnieper rivers), which is a main attack direction for Russian army.<p>Similarly, planes operating in the middle of Poland can attack targets in Kaliningrad - another crucial strategic ability for Polish defense.<p>Note, that dogfight capabilities (in which F-35 is worst than F-16) does not matter here, Polish or Finnish army will always avoid confronting Russian air forces in the direct air strike, as they will be outnumber by Russians.<p>Strangely, it seems that F-35 is much more useful for other armies than US army so no surprise US army wants something different.<p>Another thing is that F-16 Viper has sensors almost at the level of F-35, can carry JASSM missiles, but it is way, way, cheaper to buy and maintain...