A widespread concern is what would happen to Dutch weapon systems if the Americans were to withdraw completely as an ally. For example, Dutch F-35 aircraft are dependent on American software updates. Yet, Tuinman isn’t particularly worried about this.
“The F-35 is truly a shared product. The British make the Rolls-Royce engines, and the Americans simply need them too.” And even if this mutual dependency doesn’t result in software updates, the F-35, in its current state, is still a better aircraft than other types of fighters.
If you still want to upgrade despite everything, I’m going to say something I should never say, but I will anyway: you can jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone. (Crack it with your own software, ed.)
Manueverability matters less when you can fire a missile that will hit your opponent before they even know you are in the airspace.
Like I’m not trying to say the F35 is perfect, its far from it…
… But dogfights almost never happen anymore.
Air to air combat is basically # of missiles, range of missiles, threat detection/target acquisition vs stealth cpabilities.
And as we are seeing in Ukraine with drones, its very likely to become … nearly Battle Star Galactica (Newer Reboot) realtime cyberwarfare battles.