Well said Dummyrun,
I am one of the
Js main fans, and I have done the job in the past and observed very recent events. The J is the way ahead of course. It is a superb ac with much potential. It is a vast improvement over the good old ship in the low level (day and night) role - which of course it was built for. But I admit it is not yet ready for the most demanding tasks. If a few bits of kit were fitted it soon could be. Moding up the K may be a short term cost effective fix, but the end product will be less capable.
People should be looking at joint fleets, use each type at what it is good at in the short term. I don't know why darkside is so wound up because he couldn't be more wrong about facilitator - he is very much a multi crew man. Its just he has first hand experience of new technology. Darkside should see whats available before going off on one.
As for the third pilot station. we thought it might be necessary for some jobs. However, as things develop, this has been questioned and the jury is still out. The USMC have fitted out the old nav station in their tankers for use by either a third pilot or second loady. It now appears that for most missions this will not be required.