MSOCS - The "final two words" were something about Raptor, so I was wondering how you intended to fight a combined arms campaign with Raptor. However, even with F-35 and Block 3F, what do you tell the theater commander when he asks for armed overwatch with live video to the ground, or near-real-time LOROP, low-collateral-damage attack on a moving target, or would you mind taking out that frigate?
Yes, these things will come later, possibly - but the Raptor history is one of slow and very expensive upgrades, for one reason or another. I know there is an Advanced EOTS in the work, but it's one more item in the Block 4 list.
Some people are better at delivering on time and on schedule than others. I'm not aware of any program that has slipped as badly as JSF, absent outside factors (budget cuts, requirement changes).
5th Gen isn't an advertising slogan - it's a concept. Being literally unable to get one's head around that, and truly understand what it is and how it changes and challenges one's prejudices and preconceptions, is analogous to the struggle of trying to explain to a religious zealot why gay marriage is 'ok'.
If it's a concept, it was one that was defined five years after the JORD was written, because nobody except the Russians talked about it until 2004-05. I'm very well aware of what the three pillars of 5GenTM - F-22/35-like stealth, sensor fusion and networking - are supposed to achieve, and why all three were incorporated into the F-22. Indeed, sensor fusion and networking (which support EMCON) are pretty fundamental to a stealth aircraft that does more than hit ground targets.
But permit me to be skeptical, because the notion of an entire air force using this technology was enshrined in Pentagon planning 30 years ago - ATF, NATF, ATA (A-12 Avenger) - and we have spent $$$ billions for 140 fighters that we can barely afford to sustain (and 40-some more that are not yet to op standard).
Meanwhile, our adversaries and their armorers are chipping away at non-broadband, limited-aspect stealth via VHF Aesa and IRST - since we conveniently gave them 25 years' notice of our double-or-quits master plan to rely on that technology until 2060 (and put all other approaches out of business).