“Because there is no data link tie-in to the autopilot or navigation system.”
I don’t think you know what the term ‘hacked’ means.
From my experience, the majority of hacking comes from within the organization, either thru human hacking, tricking people into giving up their passwords or other information allowing someone to get into areas they should not be in.
Hacking is not always some super cyber guy with a laptop in his basement hacking thru firewalls and crippling other systems.
If you read up on the Stuxnet hack, done as a joint venture between Israel and the USA against Iran’s nuclear program, that code was released in the area of the intended target, hoping some nuclear scientist would get careless and bring work from home into work and infect the intended systems which had no outside communication links.
The virus was successful and many of the intended targets were damaged or destroyed.
I don't think you read the entire article.
The author starts with the premise that somehow the F-35 was hacked to allow it to continue to fly after the pilot had ejected.
Then the author goes through all of the issues with the ALIS maintenance software that is so bad that the F-35 program office is replacing it with a new maintenance software ODIN.
The ALIS maintenance software has many vulnerabilities that might allow someone to ground F-35s for maintenance issues that don't exist, but it cannot be used to hijack an F-15 in midair.