A widespread concern is what would happen to Dutch weapon systems if the Americans were to withdraw completely as an ally. For example, Dutch F-35 aircraft are dependent on American software updates. Yet, Tuinman isn’t particularly worried about this.
“The F-35 is truly a shared product. The British make the Rolls-Royce engines, and the Americans simply need them too.” And even if this mutual dependency doesn’t result in software updates, the F-35, in its current state, is still a better aircraft than other types of fighters.
If you still want to upgrade despite everything, I’m going to say something I should never say, but I will anyway: you can jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone. (Crack it with your own software, ed.)
The question was about the best equipment, and in it’s class F-35 is (so far) the best, considering the price. I’m sure everyone and their grandma would want 100M worth of cheap anti-drone tech too but a contract’s a contract, and they get cool planes out of it. Planes that will get a shitload of upgrades in the near future, wingman uavs for example.