Not to imply the F-35 is the be-all end-all but the article is a bit misleading. Military avionics is developed in a waterfall fashion with functionality sprea

Not to imply the F-35 is the be-all end-all but the article is a bit misleading. Military avionics is developed in a waterfall fashion with functionality spread out over several increments. Initial weapons capability is to be included in block 2B increment which /should/ be released to the fleet this year [1]. The fleet is currently using block 2A, the gatling gun seems to be block 3f by the release date cited in the article. Secondly, even after the software development is done there are still /months/ of testing (including flight tests) required before it's released to the main force. As example, f35 block 2b was reportedly finished last summer but will be ready to be fielded this summer. [1] http://www.janes.com/article/40733/farnborough-2014-block-2b-software-testing-for-f-35-nears-completion http://www.janes.com/article/40733/farnborough-2014-block-2b...