For those who have been following the battles in Ukraine, one of the things that has become clear is that in the modern combat environment, where precision weapons are available, if something can be ‘seen’ it can be taken out. The ability to quickly share a target location from those ‘seeing’ it (like drone operators) with those who can do something about it (HIMARS and other precision weapons) can be critical.
The F-35 Lightning II gets a lot of attention because it is designed to be stealthy — hard for radar systems to ‘see’ it. It also gets a lot of criticism because A) it is expensive, B) has had teething troubles, and C) is supposedly terrible at dog fighting. The first two are inevitable with any new weapons systems, especially ones that are complex. The last is debatable. The idea is to avoid having to get in a dog fight in the first place these days. Maxim 22: If you can see the whites of their eyes, somebody's done something wrong.
What people fail to appreciate about the F-35 is that it is not only stealthy, it is a powerful sensor platform and information node. It can see farther, it can see more, and it can communicate that information to where it can best be put to use. It can be a force multiplier, extending the reach of other weapons systems, whether they are other aircraft, ground forces, naval assets, or anyone else who needs that information.
A phrase that gets used repeatedly in describing what it happening in Ukraine is “the fog of war.” Among other things, it’s not just a matter of having the biggest guns show up the fastest — it’s knowing where to aim them. This video from Lockheed Martin gives an idea of what the F-35 can do that goes way beyond dog fighting, bombing, or serving as a missile platform — although it can still do those things. (Note that one of the weapons systems in the video is a HIMARS launcher.)
The challenge is making best use of the F-35 and supporting its capabilities. Air Force Magazine has an article detailing how the 644th Combat Comms Squadron took on the challenge of fielding F-35s at forward bases that don’t yet have the information infrastructure to handle them on a routine basis. The key phrase is “agile combat employment, or ACE.” From the article by Abraham Mashie:
For 30 days in April and May, a group of expeditionary communications technicians got together at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, with one task: Find a way for the F-35 to transfer data on remote or contested Pacific islands.
Often referred to as a “flying computer,” the F-35 has sophisticated technological capabilities, but it also requires datalink connections to use and share vast quantities of information at high speed. When the F-35 lands at U.S. Air Force bases, it unloads its data to a server known as the Air Force Network, or AFNet. Maintainers and operators can then study that information to service the jet and record mission data for future planning.
Access to such servers does not exist on remote Pacific islands where the fifth-generation fighter would have to operate to exercise the concept of agile combat employment, or ACE.
Given how China has become increasingly aggressive about its intentions in the South China Sea and Taiwan, it’s not difficult to understand why the U.S. might be looking at how best to position F-35s as needed, including those that are being operated by our allies in the region.
The article hints at the problems of making use of existing data networks, getting the necessary permissions, and adapting protocols. They were able to achieve performance like this:
The team gathered the data, ran tests, monitored the timing and data flows being pushed, and assured that those were available back to the warfighters.
“We needed to kind of know and kind of stretch to see how much the F-35 on our system, how much data they were using up,” said Payne. “And if they were using it, would we also be able to provide services to other people that will be operating on our network?”
In all, the technical communications networks pushed through roughly 50 gigabytes of data from about 100 F-35 sorties over seven days.
“That F-35 was able to pass all the data it needed to pass to the locations it needed to pass and to the platforms it needed to pass it to over our expeditionary kit using military satellite communications, and that was the first time,” said Butler.
“You talk about folks at the lowest levels being enabled? Yeah, like I said, this was led by a captain, three tech sergeants, and a civilian,”he added. “I’ve seen the benefit of leaders empowering their folks. Giving left limits, giving right limits, and giving them commander’s intent. And watching the amazing things they did.”
emphasis added
There’s been some appreciation of how Ukraine’s embrace of NCOs as a key element in their operations has been paying off big against the Russian top-down command structure. The USAF example here is another demonstration that investing in your people and giving them trust can pay off. Maxim 63: The brass knows how to do it by knowing who can do it.
Given what we are seeing about threat levels from Russia and China, it’s good to know we have people who can pull off something like this.
