F-35B's grounded in Yuma.

via Breaking Defense.

A glitchy software upgrade to the ALIS ground support system has grounded the Marine Corps F-35B squadron based in Yuma, Arizona, the F-35 Joint Program Office announced. Details are sparse, but a Marine Corps statement (reproduced in full below) said the unspecified “anomalies” only affected maintenance codes and only in the Yuma squadron, VMFA-211. The Marines have been the service most bullish on the F-35, pushing their variant, the F-35B jump jet, into service earlier than the Air Force or Navy.

Senate Armed Services chairman, former Navy fighter pilot, and F-35 skeptic John McCain swiftly issued a statement that he was “concerned” with the latest grounding but so far has held back from the ferocious criticism for which he’s famous.

Story here. 

Wow.  Is this ALIS system a point of vulnerability so big that black hat hackers, mercenary hackers or just bored computer nerds could change the course of a battle?

I don't know enough about this, but software is becoming a serious sore point for this program.

Can anyone explain why it needs so much code?  They brag that it has more code than the Space Shuttle but is that something to chest thump about?