“At no point is F-35 fragged to have VDL [video down-link] unless it carries a targeting pod and the F-35 EOTS does not have and will not get an IR [infrared] marker,” the first F-35 official said. “It won’t fit in the space available.”
This isn't true at all.
“Thus lies the problem in the U.S. military industrial complex. They purposefully build products that require mass amounts of money to ‘upgrade’ when in fact, they could have planned ahead and built an easily upgradable ship / aircraft / radio / weapon system.”
My considered view is that this isn't exactly true either. One of F-35's greatest strengths over legacy platforms is its relative ease of upgrade and overall growth potential. Platforms such as F/A-18, F-16 and F-15 have only a limited stay of execution in the technology game and will be victims of time and obsolescence. Eventually it will become more costly to try and patch vital capabilities onto old fighters. Agile, integrated, non-federated, fused tech is the future. Now network it and pass it around for the best SA possible. That's where it's at and 5th Gen are HD-Ready in that regard. Sure, all future upgrades will cost the US and her partners money and yes, a fair amount too I'd wager. However, I also tend to resolve that by considering it to be not too dissimilar from every legacy aircraft we've had to upgrade in the past.
Anyway, I genuinely appreciate the debate this forum brings.