The U.S. Air Force’s chief of staff wants the service to develop an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of aging F-16s and complement a small fleet of sophisticated F-35 stealth fighters. But an affordable, lightweight fighter is exactly what the F-35 was first conceived to be.
Yeah, because Lockheed Martin said F35s would have built in EW capability, so the AF would no longer need dedicated EW aircraft. Now, the F35 does have a built in EW system, but, because it's EW I can't really find how effective it is, of course. There are upgrades on it being done by the Navy and the Israelis, but honestly that might just be normal for a program.
Oh ok, I get what you mean. I thought you were talking about the EW capability of the F35s themselves.