Salute!
Yep, Jinda.
If you actually have to go to war without some pissant system that is not essential to deliver ordnance, navigate to a target, takeoff and land, etc., then I don't have a problem with declaring the plane "operational"
We always had to "fess up" about the FMC ( full mission capable) numbers of the Viper when I was the Ops Plans weenie for the first unit in the world. As with all new systems, we had our growing pains. And we identified the weak sisters early, then got help or a new vendor for the system/component.
In the Sluf I flew previously to the Viper, I was also in the first "operational" wing at The Beach. Iit was common to have a blank panel where the projected map display was or the ground map radar CRT ( the pencil beam radar function that gave tgt range in the dive toss mode did not need a steenkeeng CRT display). We also had a backup/aux UHF that didn't matter for most missions. Oh yeah, how about our doppler that helped the inertial? You could fly 99% of your missions without that thing and still have a 15 meter CEP.
My feeling is there are many trying to find anything they can to keep another platform active or in production, or just don't like this new jet. Our U.S. congress had one Warthog stalwart that was very influential. And then the female Hawg driver from the same state. The first was living in a CAS world that existed in the 60's, the one I had 400 missions in. The latter has more current experience, but never flew the types of missions I did or have the same avionics we had before she was even in kindergarden. I respect the combat experience above all, but sooner or later you have to move on to meet the new envisioned threat.
Gums sends...