Forum: General F-35 Forum

F-35 opens the door to true cooperation of forces
by Cpl. Chelsea Anderson 28 Aug 2012

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/93931/f-35 ... ion-forces

"...“This is where we talk about a fifth generation airplane versus a fourth generation airplane,” Tomassetti said. “Most of what people want to lock into with fifth generation is stealth, low observable, and the cool pieces of it. That’s great and you want as much of that as you can get. But the other piece of fifth generation is that data link and that networking capability. We used to have F/A 18s go in as the fighter cover and F/A 18s and Harriers go in as the ones that were dropping the bombs and EA-6Bs as support from an electronic attack. All those airplanes were needed to go after one target that was heavily defended. Now, we have four F-35s. They can do the fighter mission; they can do the bombing mission; they can do the electronic attack mission. They can go after that same target with a lot less airplanes.”

From his earliest days working with the X-35, Tomassetti was committed to making the new aircraft easier to handle.

“Anytime you have to spend a lot of time practicing for something, that means it’s hard,” Tomassetti said. “And things shouldn’t be hard. We should always be striving to make things easy. When you’re flying airplanes in combat, there’s enough hard things going on that you don’t want simple things like navigating from point A to point B, and your take off and landing to be the hardest things you do all day. You’ve got other stuff when you’re in the battle space that should be the hardest things you do each day.”

In keeping with this desire, the F-35B is equipped with only two joystick controls, instead of the three that the Harrier has. Also, the simulator designed to teach the pilot to fly is so similar to the airplane that the pilot can fly with confidence after mastering the simulator.

“If you ask anybody who has flown the airplane or anyone who’s flown the simulator – regardless of their aviation background – they all say, wow that’s easy; I thought it would be harder,” Tomassetti said....

...The F-35 was built with the idea in mind that it would last 40-50 years,” Tomassetti said. “Great thought was put into how the world and technology would change. We built the airplane so it could incorporate some of those changes. It’s a software intensive airplane and software is easy to upgrade, as opposed to hardware. Also, things were built in modular format in the aircraft. If something doesn’t work, you take out the module, send it back to the factory, and put a new module in.”...

...As more U.S. and international partner pilots and maintainers become acquainted with the F-35 variants and its capabilities, a world of possibilities for future engagements opens up. The F-35 may be the key to unlocking true cooperation of forces between U.S. coalition forces, creating a united front against any world threat."

Long article/interview with Col. Tomassetti best read at source.

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“Whatever you want to believe about the F-35 today, we finally built the STOVL airplane we’ve been trying to build for 60 years,” Tomassetti said.

It must be a great feeling for the Corps to finally get the plane of their dreams.

Question: how much does the fact that the data links won't have language barrier problems improve cooperation? Or, do all fighter pilots know English already?

count_to_10 wrote:

Question: how much does the fact that the data links won't have language barrier problems improve cooperation?

At the tactical level of war? A bunch.

count_to_ten wrote:

Or, do all fighter pilots know English already?

Yes.

Come to think of it, just considering the foreign fighter pilots is too limited, isn't it?
English speaking F-35 pilots are going to be supporting foreign ground troops frequently, and they might not all speak English (clearly).

count_to_10 wrote:

... Or, do all fighter pilots know English already?

F-16 pilots throughout the world know English. Some may not know it well; but, many are fluent in it. I'd expect F-35 pilots from the present international customers to know it well.

AFAIK there is an English (American Version) Language facility in US to teach English as she is speke for Military Personnel including pilots. Many foreign pilots are trained in USofA especially NavAvErs.

Everyone will be able to share the Common Operational Picture which should help immensely in coordination and minimizing potential misunderstandings.

popcorn wrote:

Everyone will be able to share the Common Operational Picture which should help immensely in coordination and minimizing potential misunderstandings.

Hey you make the elite?? 1K Laughing

that aside... Totally agree ( 1 picture is worth a thousand words ) and that symbology will be drilled into their heads in all the languages. Friends vs. Foes; Blue Forces vs. Targets; etc.

neptune wrote:

popcorn wrote:

Everyone will be able to share the Common Operational Picture which should help immensely in coordination and minimizing potential misunderstandings.

Hey you make the elite?? 1K Laughing

that aside... Totally agree ( 1 picture is worth a thousand words ) and that symbology will be drilled into their heads in all the languages. Friends vs. Foes; Blue Forces vs. Targets; etc.

Yup,it should help keep radio chatter to a minimum as well..

Do Strikers (or any of the other combat vehicles) have the ability to share the COP with F-35's?
Off Topic

Some kind of 360 degree DAS system would probably be very helpful to main battle tanks, as SA has historically been a weakness.

count_to_10 wrote:

Do Strikers (or any of the other combat vehicles) have the ability to share the COP with F-35's?
Off Topic

Some kind of 360 degree DAS system would probably be very helpful to main battle tanks, as SA has historically been a weakness.

No, not published at this time.

EODAS is not a large system and having it's IR detection and display would be valuable to any vehicle air or ground that can be attacked by powered devices in a line-of-sight mode. Baliistically they could hide behind a building, hill or big rock. RPGs make a big heat blast and trail pointing back to the shooter. It might be nice if the shootee could train a response of .50 cal. or 40mm grenades (or larger) back towards the shooter to "spice up their life". Laughing

...or a 25mm chain gun and always the 120mm smoothbore Cool

....have a nice day!

The plan is to eventually have everyone on the network sharing SA.

http://www.openwings.org/military_vision.cfm

Quote:

Some kind of 360 degree DAS system would probably be very helpful to main battle tanks, as SA has historically been a weakness.

btw, NG is developing EODAS for use on ships.

http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/solut ... index.html

neptune wrote:

count_to_10 wrote:

Do Strikers (or any of the other combat vehicles) have the ability to share the COP with F-35's?
Off Topic

Some kind of 360 degree DAS system would probably be very helpful to main battle tanks, as SA has historically been a weakness.

No, not published at this time.

EODAS is not a large system and having it's IR detection and display would be valuable to any vehicle air or ground that can be attacked by powered devices in a line-of-sight mode. Baliistically they could hide behind a building, hill or big rock. RPGs make a big heat blast and trail pointing back to the shooter. It might be nice if the shootee could train a response of .50 cal. or 40mm grenades (or larger) back towards the shooter to "spice up their life". Laughing

...or a 25mm chain gun and always the 120mm smoothbore Cool

....have a nice day!

I've been looking into tank combat recently, and one of the things that comes up constantly is that tanks get killed by surprise because they don't have the situational awareness to realize that they are rolling into a trap -- or even that an enemy tank is shooting at them. Just having something that gives a tank commander selections of possible targets would be very helpful.

SpudmanWP wrote:

The plan is to eventually have everyone on the network sharing SA.

http://www.openwings.org/military_vision.cfm

Quote:

Some kind of 360 degree DAS system would probably be very helpful to main battle tanks, as SA has historically been a weakness.

btw, NG is developing EODAS for use on ships.

http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/solut ... index.html

Hope they work that into the LCS.