F-35 stealth fighter sees first combat, in Israeli operation

[zipplewrath]

2. Your knowledge is a bit dated

And is a bit inaccurate as well. It had to do with lightining, not rain.

In early 2015, even before the F-35 was certified to fly in lightning storms, an F-35C (test aircraft CF-8) was accidentally hit by lightning while on approach to land at Eglin AFB. The result? Nothing; the plane landed fine, nothing was showing any warnings and no systems were damaged.

Even back in 2013, the Netherlands’ first F-35 was used to stress test aircraft subsystems and was subjected to ‘865 simulated low level “lightning strikes”’, with no damage to the aircraft, all systems working appropriately and the reactions matching simulations.

There's a difference between being "certified" to do something, and actually not being able to do it.