Here is an interesting blog. One Finnish guy has been running sims in CMO, a respected military sim, with all the HX contestants - F-35, Rafale, Typhoon, Gripen and Super Bug:
Sota on valtioiden elinkysymys, elämän ja kuoleman piiri, tie nousuun tai tuhoon. Siksi siihen ei pidä kevytmielisesti mennä. Sun Tzu
epamuodikkaitaajatuksia.com
The scenarios involve an air war in northern Finland. We are only talking about DCA here, meaning Defensive Counter Air.
Results are interesting. Typhoon is winner overall. Typhoon has many advantages: it can shoot missiles farther away than other by virtue of it's great speed, possibly shooting while in supercruise and such.
Second is Gripen. Gripen beats Rafale because it has the AEW plane to support it - the SAAB GlobalEye plane is there to help. What is interesting is that the GlobalEye is not enough to make it superior to Typhoon.
Rafale gives a good account of itself. No problem there. In case the GlobalEye is not available, Rafale will obviously be superior to Gripen because it is a bigger and more powerful aircraft.
All Eurocanards come on top of the American contestants. Main reason is probably that the 'muricans don't have Meteor missiles.
Rock bottom is... surprise, surprise... the F-35. It is maybe the Growlers that help the Super Hornet come out on top of the F-35.
While it is only a simulation, one fact stands out: the Meteor missile is needed for best performance in counter air. All EuroCanards have it. Americans don't.
Now that Britain is cutting their orders for the F-35, it seems that there will NEVER be Meteor for the F-35A. OK, maybe. Maybe it is easy to make it work on the F-35A if they integrate it on the F-35B. But maybe not. I don't know.