Just a thought but maybe Luke has pre-LRIP 3 jets that haven't had the modified fuel pump yet? White paint is cheap and there's nothing wrong with local personnel having bright ideas to help. it's just the US equivalent of a GEMS award. Any excuse to have an uninformed swipe at the jet though...
The 'Lab Test' would be the full climatic lab at Eglin with a production spec test jet from Pax River. It's a very special hangar sized facility; the internet has great pictures of what it can do with F-117 and F-22. I haven't seen any public pictures of an F-35 in there yet.
Given the visual similarities of the Chinese J-31 to the F-35 is anyone even slightly surprised to hear the Chinese have been spying? They have a C-17 alike too. Also the manufacturer isn't going to write a press release saying that they've built a good aircraft, but not quite as good as the competition are they? The Chinese Airshow footage of the J-31 shows a few unstealthy elements to the design that I'm sure will be exploited if required.
Rigga, there are plans for infrastructure at Marham, but until it's built there's not a lot of point making a big song and dance about it. The assembly line in Italy is using parts made in the UK so it's not like UK industry is missing out.