[Baron von Kriterium]

The stealth aspect of the F35 gets the publicity because it's "sexy" to the public; it is apparent and identifiable to the public. The reality, though, is the F35's advantage is its C4ISR ( Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance).

Network integration is such an integral part of US operations and it's light years ahead of anything else. Imagine, if you will, our planes sit at the end of a spoke, where the hub is the US C4ISR element.

The F35 will, in a way, make each aircraft a mini-hub in a distributed system - gathering information and distributing it to other fighters in its network. This will have the biggest change on the fighter's concept of operations, not its stealth ability.

But here's the rub, unless we have the F35, we can't integrate into that network. Whether that is critical or not is not known. Why? Because our government hasn't defined a mission/role for the Armed Forces in general and the F35 in particular.