The point is with the money spent no destruction testing was carried out on a complete airframe. It is a problem that should never have happened. and needed to be fixed especially when you are getting so few.
As for Link 16 it should have been in at the beginning, other AF have it and the USAF touts its network centric ability which at the current moment it can't do. Sure it will in time but that shuldn't be the case.
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