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The F-35 Thread

Groove

By Groove
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outlawal2

outlawal2

Posted
Posted

 

 

Well gee, yeah.. If Boeing says so, then it HAS to be the gospel, right? There is no conflict of interest in taking that article at face value is there?

 

I mean if their submission was inferior to the competition, then they would say so wouldn't they? Not like there are literally Billions of dollars at stake or anything..

 

:thumbup:

"Pride is a poor substitute for intelligence."

RAMBO

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Invader ZIM

Invader ZIM

Posted
Posted

lol, add to the fact that an F-35 trying to quietly slip through air defenses using it's stealth as an advantage and having the option to jam with it's own system only after being detected.

 

Versus a EA-18G that's broadcasting jamming signals over a wide spectrum of frequencies that couldn't possibly alert the enemy defenses that something is out there...

 

 

They both have their place, and the Navy considers the EA-18G a extra layer of insurance as they consider the EA-18G + F-35 to be an even more effective combo.

 

http://news.usni.org/2014/03/26/navy-wants-growlers-fight-deadlier-high-end-air-war

 

Meanwhile, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is also an extremely capable electronic attack platform — but only over a limited part of the spectrum, Manazir said.

 

The F-35 uses its Northrop Grumman APG-81 for its electronic attack capability and therefore is limited to jamming enemy emitters within its own frequency band.

 

“The EA [electronic attack] capabilities of the F-35 are designed to support its own strike package in a specific portion of the EM [electromagnetic] spectrum. The EA-18G by design has a much broader and wider application of EA capabilities,” wrote Capt. Scott Conn, who heads the strike branch under Manazir’s office, in a statement to USNI News.

 

“The EA-18G is utilized as a theater level asset, attacking the full spectrum of threat kill chains from communication systems, surveillance, acquisition, and fire control radars,” Conn wrote.

“The EA capabilities of the F-35 complement the EA-18G, and the synergy between the two are very effective against advanced IADs [integrated air defenses] threats.”

 

Manazir testified that the EA-18G would be used to support the F-35B and C in their penetrating strike role in an anti-access/area denial environment (A2/AD).

 

“Stealth provides significant survivability but it does not address the complete kill chain of the threat. The combination of stealth and EA is extremely effective; EA effectiveness is usually based on what is called J/S Jamming signal/Signature signal,” Conn stated, expanding on Manazir’s testimony.

 

“With stealth [aircraft] the signature is magnitudes lower than conventional [aircraft]. Thus, specific jamming from the EA-18G with ALQ-99 or Next Generation Jammers can be significantly more effective for a stealth [aircraft] than for a conventional [aircraft.]”

Further, the EA-18G would be needed to support a “stand-in” jamming capability, Manazir said. The stand-off jamming would be needed while the “stand-in” jammers penetrate into hostile territory—but Manazir did not elaborate on exactly what that stand-in capability would consist of.

 

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GGTharos

GGTharos

Posted
Posted

I don't believe this is even surprising ... blinding EWRs is usually the job of SOJs, so the Growler or a Compass Call or something like that.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Reminder: SAM = Speed Bump :D

I used to play flight sims like you, but then I took a slammer to the knee - Yoda

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OutOnTheOP

OutOnTheOP

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Posted (edited)

 

Author of article seems to me a political wag who doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, science-wise. The assertion that the US didn't know how to build a tailless supersonic aircraft is patently false (X-31, among others, is both supersonic and- from test data- stable without it's tail. The type of VHF radar (150 foot antenna? Yeah, that's TOTALLY road-mobile and tactically practical) referred to is incapable of providing weapons guidance.... and easily jammed by other assets.


Edited by OutOnTheOP
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Emu

Emu

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Posted

http://aviationweek.com/awin/lockheed-s-secret-project-missouri-links-f-22-f-35

 

Lockheed’s Secret ‘Project Missouri’ Links F-22, F-35

Secret Lockheed Martin demo is a step toward fixing F-22 and F-35 communications problem

 

Developed with a Cold War mind-set, communications for stealthy aircraft were largely intended to be limited. But that has become a hindrance to operating the F-22 and F-35 on the modern battlefield.

 

To address the jets' inabilities to link to one another—or to legacy fighters—in air campaigns, their manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, has demonstrated a new data-linking capability it developed for them secretly through “Project Missouri,'” a proprietary program. During the demonstration, Lockheed validated the use of a Link 16 transmit capability from the twin-engine F-22 Raptor and showcased an exotic waveform developed by L-3 Communications and optimized for low-probability of intercept/low-probability of detection transmissions (LPI/LPD), says Ron Bessire, vice president of technology and innovation at the company's Skunk Works.

 

The demonstration required 8 hr. of flight time and took place Dec. 17 and 19, 2013, Bessire tells Aviation Week. The trials required use of a U.S. Air Force Raptor and the F-35 Cooperative Avionics Testbed (CATbird), a Boeing 737-based flying laboratory that was used as a Joint Strike Fighter surrogate to test F-35 software. The F-22 also was able to transmit to a Link 16 terminal on the ground.

 

The F-22 was originally designed to communicate only with other Raptors, in an effort to reduce emissions from the aircraft and maintain signal stealth in the event of a peer-to-peer engagement. However, because of a dramatic cutback in the number of Raptors purchased—187 bought for operations, compared to the 648 planned in 1996 to be procured—the aircraft must now communicate with F-35s expected to enter service next year as well as legacy “fourth-generation” fighters such as the F-15, F-16 and F-18 families.

 

This so-called fifth-to-fourth capability was highlighted as a need last week by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh at the annual Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., but a firm requirement and funding are lacking. Describing the technology as “nothing cosmic,” Welsh said such a link would extend the range and improve the effectiveness of each platform. Ultimately, handoff of weapons-quality data is needed, meaning data from one aircraft can be used by another to accurately fire a weapon.

 

“We demonstrated the data was being transmitted at a high [enough] rate to support rapid update of the air tracks to whomever was on Link 16,” Bessire says.

 

Should such a capability be fielded, the F-22 could be used to enhance the effectiveness of F-15s and F-16s in an air battle, because most of the older fighters lack the use of an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The Northrop Grumman radars on the F-22 and F-35 are able to detect and target airborne threats at ranges far exceeding those of radars on the older fighters.

 

Bessire says the “LPI/LPD waveform still needs some additional maturation,” but he declined to discuss whether it is in use in another platform. Such a waveform would be useful for the B-2, new unmanned aircraft such as the Northrop Grumman RQ-180 and any system hoping to reduce radio-frequency emissions to conduct stealthy operations.

 

Equipment and the aperture for delivering the signal are at a technology readiness level of 9, he said, indicating more work needs to be done before it can be proven in a relevant environment and garner full programmatic status at the Pentagon. The F-22, however, is able to use its existing apertures to operate the waveform, he says.

 

Installation of a so-called “open system architecture” (OSA) rack and the radio took place within a year of starting the effort to add Link 16 to the Raptor, according to Bessire. The OSA racks also can enable other operations, such as distributed electronic attack, although this was not demonstrated.

 

“What we learned out of this demonstration is that there is tremendous power in the Air Force open-mission architecture standard,” Bessire says. The equipment was installed in the F-22's avionics bay.

 

Through Project Missouri, Lockheed Martin is trying to package a capability similar to that offered by the Northrop Grumman Joint Strike Fighter Enterprise Terminal (JETpack) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration within a stealthy aircraft. JETpack was a podded solution; incorporating it on the stealthy F-22 and F-35 would compromise their low radar cross sections.

 

Lockheed Martin is briefing Air Force leadership on the demonstration results and hoping to see an official requirement for such a capability. Suppliers, such as L-3, shared in the cost of the demonstration. But the team would like to see a sign from the Air Force to continue work. If funding were not an issue, the Link 16 system could be fielded by the end of this year, Bessire says. “One of the goals of the demonstration was to create a reusable design, whether that was software or hardware,” he says.

 

The program was dubbed “Project Missouri” as a response to a demand from Air Combat Command chief Gen. Michael Hostage, who told the company to “show me” it was possible when Lockheed briefed plans for the demonstration to him before it took place. Bessire notes that Missouri is nicknamed the “Show Me State.”

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