Thank you, Engines, for another good account of the route to were we are. Carefully crafted as ever.
MADL is, as you describe, essential to networking F-35s and making the sensors more effective. In terms of passive sensors it is the key to passive detection, ranging and targeting. It is, in essence, a core element in the capability and it is a great strength.
Right now it also precludes easy integration with other platforms. That runs contrary to many years of work to try to hook platforms into any kind of network - Link 16 was the vehicle of choice - but we struggled due to funding (the radio wasn't that expensive), integration and clearance costs.
Now, which way do we go? Start from scratch and have all the other platforms move to MADL, buy into the "portal" to connect the two networks or accept that we may have two, unrelated networks.
Yes, I know there are other data transfer methods.