It's more a Chinese problem than an American problem, because the F/A-XX project is already in progress. China is trying to catch up to the United States, and if the projected J-20 is deployed right now, it'll likely be superior to the F-35, just as the F-35, if its program had been on schedule, would be superior to the J-20 in certain key aspects.
Basically, if a mature J-20 can be put out in numbers by 2022, it'll have five years of numerical dominance over the F-22 and qualitative dominance over the F-35. Towards 2028-2032, American sixth gens will hit the field, which will render the J-20 obsolete until the Chinese can catch up with their own sixth-generation kit.
But here's the problem; what happened to the F-35 was that its development was excessively prolonged, to the point where it had few advantages over its competitors, because while it was state-of-the-art during the design phase most of its technologies got cloned or hacked during its prolonged development. If the J-20 is similarly late with its "reach" technologies like its EODAS and proper 5th gen engines, 5 years of dominance could become 4, 3, 2, or 0.
As a good, loyal American this is not a problem for you. You must be interested in the J-20 simply because you like planes, and if its later technologies are 5 or 10 years late, no problem, it's still a beautiful plane. For the Chinese, however, this is geopolitically important because it determines how much military leverage they'll have in the region and the world between now and 2030, and if the J-20's add-on programs are late, it'll imply that sixth-generation fighters will also be late.
Basically, America is usually ahead of everyone else in planes; the US's cutting edge is a half or full generation ahead of everyone else's. This time, because of Lockheed screwing the pooch, America will hit parity with China for a brief interval, until it pulls ahead again with sixth gens. The question is whether or not China will also screw the pooch, then; if they don't, they have a chance of being briefly ahead, if they do, they will be a half-generation behind the US again.
My wifey, who went to nursing school and worked in the local hospital as a student, used to repeat the old adage that to "assume" made an "a--" out of you and me? Noting your assumptions here I would repeat the same to you???
Lesson 1 -all developmental programs, always fall behind!
Lesson 2-all developmental programs cost more than projected! always true.
Lesson 3-projections of capability are almost always overly optimistic.
You are making an initial assumption that capabilities expansion is always linear, it is not. As we drive capabilities into what today are the nether regions of technology, we should plan for and expect delays and cost overruns, as well as capability gaps
You are projecting your assumptions/time lines into the future based on broad generalities, each engineering challenge must be met with specific and targeted solutions, that hopefully does not push your project to far over projected timelines/budget constraints.
I do love beautiful aircraft, but as they say, "form follows function"?? the old engineering adage is almost always applicable to aircraft, and more than any other animate object, aircraft must conform to the airflow around them!
Lets just take ONE of your many erroneous assumptions??? That the J-20 is now or will be in the future? superior to the F-22 Raptor? upon what are you basing this statement??? your own, or others erroneous assumptions??? number one, you do NOT know the Raptors true capabilities??? NOR do you know its limitations??? and tell me what you really know about the J-20 or its capabilities or limitations???
so you have proven the old adage about assumptions??? but little else my brother.
Now you do make some interesting and even cogent observations, and by those observations we may formulate some assumptions that may be more accurate, but the broad brush verbatim statements are each likely to be in-accurate??
You could say that the J-20 or the T-50 will have a higher top speed than the Raptor?? but do you have any accurate data of the top speed of any one of these three aircraft????
Not trying to be rude or arrogant, only accurate. Brat