“I can see the whole war, and where all the other players are, from a god’s-eye view. George Watkins, a squadron commander, said in an Air Force statement last year. “We’re keeping our own forces much more engaged and boosting survivability.” “The thing that’s great about having Link 16 and MADL onboard and the sensor fusion is the amount of situational awareness the pilot has,” Lt. “You hear it from the [F-15) Eagles and the Marine Corps,” said Billie Flynn, an F-35 test pilot at Lockheed Martin Corp., which also made the F-22. This fusion of sensor data-and the ability to distribute it with allied aircraft-allows the F-35 to serve as a “quarterback” during a conflict. The F-35 fleet also has what’s called a multifunction advanced data link (MADL) to gather and share information with other F-35s. fifth-generation jets are adept at disseminating a more detailed view of the battle space to older aircraft, increasing the former’s “survivability” in combat. Jets such as the Air Forces’s F-15 and F-16 and the Navy’s F/A-18 are “fourth-generation.” Russia and China also are fielding and refining their fifth-generation fighters, the Su-57 and J-31, respectively. “The Air Force postponed a lot of things for F-22.”īoth the Raptor and Lightning II are known as “fifth-generation” aircraft because of their stealth, sensors and other capabilities. “There’s a lot of improvements that could have been done and should have been done 15 years ago,” said David Rockwell, a senior defense electronics analyst with Teal Group. combat communications among the various aircraft to “a kind of Tower of Babel.” And the necessary modifications haven’t been fast in coming. In a recent story on the situation, Air Force Magazine likened U.S. While the F-22’s IFDL protocol can receive data from the F-35 and other allied aircraft, such as the F-16 and Eurofighter Typhoon, it can’t transmit the vast array of situational data it collects. The F-22’s Intra-Flight Data Link (IFDL) is a much older system than the Tactical Link 16 system used on the newer F-35. Had the Air Force gotten all the F-22s it wanted-more than double the 183 or so it has-integration of its systems with another fleet of “fifth generation” fighters wouldn’t have been as critical. In 2009, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended the program. But budget considerations and initial optimism about a post-Cold War world cut short its production. The plane’s requirements for maximum stealth extended to its communications systems, since they can betray an aircraft’s location. Unfortunately, they have a difficult time communicating with each other.The F-22, originally designed as an air superiority fighter, dates to the mid-1980s and was created to dispense near-invisible lethality against Soviet targets before the enemy knew it was there.
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