Reliable comms is far from guaranteed in a war, and if there's a gen. 4 fighter dogfight involved, it presumably a median sophisticated adversary capable of EW.

Reliable comms is far from guaranteed in a war, and if there's a gen. 4 fighter dogfight involved, it presumably a median sophisticated adversary capable of EW. Also opening up the ol' remote desktop port on an F16 is a major cyber risk.