Glojo,
i'm as thick as a whale omlette - how/why would giving an F-35B a tanking capability be that much harder than taking a buddy re-fuelling pod from a Tornado, or F/A-18, and nailing it onto the inboard pylon of an F-35?
i'm not saying a 'good' tanking capability, i'm merely asking why physically addapting such simple, legacy equipment would be so cripplingly expensive/hard?