Seriously?!?!?
Apart from the virtual "see-through-your-plane" helmet software, which is kinda new (but not in itself a terribly hard problem), the rest of the F-35's systems should be pretty simple as it's nothing new. Artificial stability? Been done for years, indeed it was trialed in the '80s (BAe Jaguar ACT flew with "relaxed stability" in 1981, IIRC). Weapons launched from internal bays at supersonic speeds? F-22 got that covered. AESA radar is pretty old hat too. Integrated coms with encrypted links to external sources? The old Tornado ADV could manage that. And even the VTOL bits are not exactly ground-breaking (even the Ruskies managed it with the Yak-36 and -38). I suspect the issue is someone had the "bright idea" of ignoring decades of avionics development by actual avionics engineers and decided to hire some whizz kid programmers with zero experience in the field. Lockheed Martin are making themselves look seriously incompetent.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
