MiG-35 Fulcrum-F vs. Stealth F-35 Lightning II: Which Fighter Wins?

MiG-35 Fulcrum-F vs. Stealth F-35 Lightning II: Which Fighter Wins?

On paper, a MiG-35 against an F-35 sounds like a fair fight, and in one narrow sense it is: dragged into a close-in knife fight, Russia's most advanced Fulcrum is genuinely dangerous, and the F-35 is a mediocre dogfighter by design. But that fight decides nothing, because the F-35 sees the MiG-35 first, shoots first, and never has to let the merge happen. The Russian jet's one real advantage exists only in an engagement it has no way to force, a…