Israel has just been denied access to the computer systems of the F-35 JSF that would be required to maintain the aircraft.

Israel maintains that they need they need access to these systems, because in a wartime scenario, that they would need to repair the systems in real time, while the US maintains that there will be spares that can be replaced under those circumstances.

So Israel is now making noises about looking at the F-15 Silent Eagle upgrade as an alternative to the JSF, which I think is just blowing smoke.

I also think that both sides are talking around the real issues, the first being sticker shock, with a reporter $20 billion for 75 aircraft giving a $266 million price tag, but the second one, and perhaps the one that the Israelis are more concerned with, is the ability to independently integrate their own weapons and their own systems into the aircraft.

There is also the concern, at least amongst those of us who watched the recent Battlestar Galactica series, that there may be an “off” switch somewhere in those millions of lines of code.