F-35A at Red Flag 19-1

[firebase99]

Salute!

You got it, Count.

Not only that, but when the Earth was still cooling our original speed "gate" for the Viper radar had to be raised. This showeed itself worst when the jets went to Europe and flew over the Autobahn. a zillion targets showed up when looking down!! Our problemin Utah was I-84 and speedo folks. But only those zooming along ten or fifteen MPH over the limit. So they had to raise the "ignore" speed. Helos were still not a problem due to the spinning rotors, but I guess zeppelins with cloth envelopes, eagle feather control surfaces and balsa frames might be trouble.

So look for funny things in next RF besides the chariots

Gums sends...

Ive read reports in the 80's and 90's Eagles locking up Porsches and Das Benze! zipping along on the Autobahn. Vaguely recall they it filtered to 90MPH and up.

[old_rn]

Salute!

You got it, Count.

Not only that, but when the Earth was still cooling our original speed "gate" for the Viper radar had to be raised. This showeed itself worst when the jets went to Europe and flew over the Autobahn. a zillion targets showed up when looking down!! Our problemin Utah was I-84 and speedo folks. But only those zooming along ten or fifteen MPH over the limit. So they had to raise the "ignore" speed. Helos were still not a problem due to the spinning rotors, but I guess zeppelins with cloth envelopes, eagle feather control surfaces and balsa frames might be trouble.

So look for funny things in next RF besides the chariots

Gums sends...

Ive read reports in the 80's and 90's Eagles locking up Porsches and Das Benze! zipping along on the Autobahn. Vaguely recall they it filtered to 90MPH and up.

Reminds me that one of the (many) problems with the Nimrod AEW was that it tried to track every moving car in UK - overwhelmed the 1970s computer power!

[hythelday]

I think Mike "Dozer" Shower also told that he picked up someone doing their best Lightning McQueen impersonation on a highway while looking for Fulcrums over Bosnia.

So perhaps An-2 Colt and other "bush" props are the real stealth aircraft, especially in IR and acoustic department. I have read some speculations that supposedly South Koreans infil their SOF into best Korea using Colts at very low altitude.

[SpudmanWP]

Reminds me that one of the (many) problems with the Nimrod AEW was that it tried to track every moving car in UK - overwhelmed the 1970s computer power!

Thankfully the F-35 was designed to track over 100 items now and the expected 25x increase in computing power in Block4 (TR3) should insulate it even further from those kinds of issues.

[spazsinbad]

Don't often visit SLDinfo these days so here is an OLDie but Goldie... LONG article best read at SOURCE - with paras even.

The F-35 and the Next Gen Battlespace
26 Feb 2019 SLDinfo

"The recent news from Red Flag 2019-1 with regard to how the F-35 is teaming with other elements of an air combat force to deliver air superiority is hardly a surprise to readers of Second Line of Defense who have travelled with us over the more than a decade to get to the point where we have reached. And where we are is only a foundation for where airpower will next evolve.

The “future is now” with regard to dealing with peer competitors like China and Russia and the F-35 is a key element of shaping evolving combat capability to prevail in a contested environment....

...The acceleration of information flows for 5th generation systems such as the F-35, is about more than just radios and data links – communication with other platforms and sensors in the physical battlespace is but one aspect. The most decisive effects are the result of a sophisticated interaction between people and the platform which is changing the way we think about and comprehend the emerging operational environment....

…FUTURE READY…
...Even now, critics and lobbyists still default to comparisons with the F-22 Raptor, and describe the F-35 in terms of “troubled” or “controversial”, rather than transformational and now, combat proven. They ignore the F-35’s debut at the world’s most complex large-scale training event – Red Flag – where it reportedly achieved an unprecedented twenty-to-one kill ratio.

Yet to measure the F-35 simply in terms of platform performance misses the point entirely. One of the key reasons the JSF program has survived the global financial crisis, sequestration, highly-paid lobbyists, and others with a colourful variety of pecuniary interests is that it promotes the new approach to warfare needed to succeed in the information age, and delivers capability which can be measured directly in terms of its contribution to joint operations….

…DISTRIBUTING LETHALITY
...The F-35’s key contribution to a joint force is its prolific ability to share information and to profoundly accelerate the combat decision-making processes, especially targeting. Targeting is the golden thread which integrates the effort to combine the intelligence, political, legal, environmental, technological, conceptual and moral factors into the way western democracies plan and execute engagements. It enables a sophisticated, rules-based, human interaction with warfare, and accelerates the decision-making process to compensate for those adversaries who do not play by our rules. It allows us to do the ‘right’ thing, even in the ‘fog of war’....

…PROJECTING FUTURE STATUS…
...the F-35 has become the first modern tactical fighter jet to fly without the need for a HUD, because its helmet mounted display (HMD) provides the pilot with unrivalled levels of SA fed by 360-degree coverage from multiple fused sensors, even allowing the pilot to visualise the battlespace beneath his or her feet through the aircraft’s floor.

This is a technological advancement driven by decades of experience which has proven time and again that an information deficit and a lack of SA hands the initiative and advantage to the adversary whom, more often than not, arrives as an unwelcome surprise.

UNSEEN ATTACKERS
One of the best open-source analyses of SA in the context of air combat was written by Barry D. Watts, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), in his paper ‘Clausewitzian Friction and Future War’. Watts’ observations draw upon data collected from operational experience and, more convincingly, are scientifically derived from operational evaluations of weapons systems such as the AMRAAM dating back to 1981.

Watts observed that, “Air combat experience going at least back to World War II suggests that surprise in the form of the unseen attacker has been pivotal in three-quarters or more of the kills…if some 80 per cent of the losses have resulted from aircrews being unaware that they were under attack until they either were hit or did not have time to react effectively, then a relative deficit of situation awareness has been the root-cause of the majority of losses in actual air-to-air combat.”...

…THE EDGE OF CHAOS
...As mentioned earlier, the F-35 has extended this [SA] advantage to a 20-1 kill-ratio providing further evidence during complex training events that enhanced SA, information advantage, and success go hand-in-hand. However, cognitive performance during actual air combat engagements introduces additional human factors difficult to replicate in training....

...Solving this problem through the targeting function has been a key design feature of the F-35, providing a universal benefit to the joint force and a means of managing the catastrophic risks associated with fratricide by easing the cognitive overload associated with combat engagements and, in particular, air combat within visual range of an adversary or proximity to friendly forces...." [A TONNE OF TEXT NOT excerpted here so best read at source]

Source: https://sldinfo.com/2019/02/the-f-35-an ... ttlespace/

[quicksilver]

Deleted as I posted it in the wrong thread.

SWP has it covered in F-15X.

[spazsinbad]

F-35 Pilot Interviews with the last one from RED FLAG 1/2019 - Complete article in nine page PDF attached below.

THE F-35 FACES ITS MOST CRITICAL TEST WHAT PILOTS SAY ABOUT THE WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED FIGHTER.
April/May 2019 INTERVIEWS BY LINDA SHINER

"...LIEUTENANT COLONEL YOSEF MORRIS | USAF 4TH SQUADRON;
COMMANDER, 388TH FIGHTER WING, HILL AIR FORCE BASE
In 2012, Morris transitioned to the F-35 from the F-16. He was part of the initial cadre that stood up the first F-35 squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, and he led the 4th Fighter Squadron in 2017 and 2019 Red Flag exercises.

In the two years since [the 388th’s] last Red Flag exercise, the airplane itself has had some pretty significant advancements. A couple of months before the 2017 Red Flag, the Air Force declared that the squadron was what we call “initial operational capable.” So the jet still had some operating limitations— altitude, airspeed, Gs, things like that. The software on the aircraft, though very capable, still had some limitations in terms of some of the systems and some of the weapons it could control. Fast forward two years, and we’re operating with what’s referred to as full warfighting capability software. It’s a more advanced F-35 than it was two years ago.

[In the mission to suppress enemy air defenses,] we’re trying to prevent surface-to-air missiles from targeting other aircraft that are trying to get to different objectives. The F-35 has some really good sensors that can help us locate those threats. That’s a very satisfying mission to be able to target something that’s trying to shoot at you, especially when [you’re] helping out some other assets to get to a target and keeping them safe.

The jet is sort of like a big antenna. It is receiving emissions from things that are radiating. And sometimes the [F-35’s] radar is actively trying to get information on, for example, an adversary aircraft. We can mission-plan the sensors, depending on the type of mission.

And in a large-force environment like Red Flag, where there might be as many as 60 or 70 aircraft on the Blue side and 10 or 20 adversary aircraft, lots of things on the ground—that’s a lot of information to interpret. Reading the first sortie on the first day, I certainly felt overwhelmed with the amount of information. And the next sortie I flew, I could manage some of my sensors differently to give me just the information I needed for that particular mission. Figuring out how to declutter your display to match the scenario is one of the main skills we learn here that we can’t simulate in day-to-day training, because you don’t get to train with the rest of the Department of Defense on a daily basis."

Source: AIR & SPACE Magazine April/May 2019 Vol.34 No.1

[Corsair1963]

Impressive as always..........

[loke]

F-35 has been on Red Flag twice earlier. But until now, there have only been US pilots in the latest aircraft. This year's Red Flag participated for the first time F-35 with pilots from partner nations, including Norway. The exercise was completed last weekend.
Tesli does not detail how many Norwegian pilots have participated, but says that these are the most experienced F-35 pilots - all of the Norwegian instructors at the Luke airbase in Arizona, where Norway has seven training aircraft.

At the exercise, Norwegian pilots have flown American aircraft for practical and logistical reasons, in order to stay with only US ALIS ("Autonomic Logistics Information System". It is not decided yet, but it is up to the Air Force to deploy with their own aircraft and ground crew on Red Flag once before they must be fully operational (FOC) in 2025.

Google translated from: https://www.tu.no/artikler/norske-flyge ... lse/461237

So no Norwegian F-35 at Red Flag, but Norwegian pilots... and that's the most important thing at this stage.

[krorvik]

tu.no is a very good source for accurate information

From same source, on 228 disbandment:

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... r%2F461350

Interestingly, a lone F-16 taking off from the depot at Kjeller buzzed by as I read that article yesterday.

[doge]

Red Flag 19-2 from Italy. (Language Italy, Used Google translation.)
http://www.reportdifesa.it/aeronautica- ... -velivolo/

Aeronautica Militare, exercise "Red Flag 19-2": Italian F-35 pilots fly for the first time with the Americans and the Norwegians. Comments excited about the performance of the aircraft
BY EDITORIAL STAFF PUBLISHED MARCH 27, 2019
Washington. The “Red Flag 19-2” exercise was concluded in the Nellis Air Force Base (AFB) in Nevada, which for the first time saw the participation of a multinational group, the 62nd Fighter Squadron (FS) of the Luke Air Base which has among its ranks F-35 pilots not only from the US, but also from Italy and Norway. Three instructors from the Italian Air Force participated in the two weeks of advanced training.

In addition to the F-35As, the United States redeployed F-15C, F-15E, E-3 AWACS, an E-8 Joint Star and a USF MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, in addition to the EF-18G Growler of the US Navy.

Saudi Arabia fielded the brand new F-15SE fighters, Singapore the F-15SA, Belgium and the Netherlands the F-16A MLU, the United Arab Emirates a Squadron of F-16E Block 60.

The in-flight refueling function was performed by a Dutch KDC-10 and a Colombian KC-767, while the CSAR (Combat Search And Rescue) cell was guaranteed by two HH-60s, two A-10s and a USAF HC-130J. The number of aircraft in flight at the same time (in the so-called "packages") has exceeded 60 units.

The integration between very different platforms was the main theme of the exercise. In fact "only by integrating the capabilities of the fourth and fifth generation aircraft can the results obtainable by both be maximized", declared one of the Italian instructors, Major Emanuele A ..

Multiple roles covered by the F-35 aircraft during the exercise, the formations of the 62nd FS carried out, for example, many Air Superiority missions in the role SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) with the task of escorting the coalition aircraft, protecting them from ground-to-air SAM (Surface to Air Missile) threats.

At the same time, together with dedicated "friendly" planes, such as the F-15Cs (called the air-to-air "escort" in jargon), they defended the coalition from "enemy" aircraft, reducing the risk of losses and creating superior conditions. necessary to allow the others to complete their respective operational missions.

Furthermore, some DCA (Defensive Counter Air) missions were successfully carried out, during which our pilots, in addition to the tasks of this specific type, operated as Battle Manager, transmitting tactical information to the other aircraft assets.

The F-35s, in formation from four aircraft, acted as force enabler, achieving significant results in neutralizing the threats, with an average of around seven SAM systems and five "suppressed" Red Air assets for each mission, managing to be the the only asset to fly 100% of the planned missions: the five deployed assets allowed two missions to be carried out each day by four aircraft.

At the end of the Red Flag the enthusiasm among the pilots and the specialists of the 62nd FS was very intense.

“Being at the controls of an F-35, a fifth-generation aircraft, has always been a dream of mine. I imagined that the machine had unique capabilities in combat and I had the confirmation from the first flight [...] but participating in Red Flag, one of the best exercises in the world, confirmed it to me beyond all expectations ", he declared immediately after the landing from the last mission Major Alessandro P.

For the pilots the results obtained, in these two weeks, are almost unbelievable: the statistics do not need comments.

The weapon system was the most effective in neutralizing SAMs and absolutely essential in the immediate transmission of all the specific information for the success of the mission.

"We knew we had an operating advantage, due to the 5th generation technology, but we didn't expect such a high rate of success - highlights the Major Emanuele A - in the 16 OCA missions (Offensive Counter Air) flown, against zero losses among the F-35s, we have neutralized more than 100 SAM systems ".

"I was impressed by the skills demonstrated by the F-35 in a complex and realistic environment such as the Red Flag where there are real professionals who simulate the Red Air, or the enemy air forces," added Major Giuseppe A. at the end of the exercise -. During our missions we were among the first to enter the area of ​​operations, far beyond the enemy lines, and the last to leave it, thanks both to the great persistence and to the peculiar Low-Observability characteristics of our 5th generation aircraft. We were able to identify, transmit and neutralize terrestrial and air threats very quickly, protecting the coalition's assets in highly risky circumstances: the superior capabilities of the F-35 were often decisive ”.

"In the beginning - he added or - not everyone had understood how to integrate because we had never seen each other operate. During the exercise, however, we reached a high level of interoperability that allowed us, as a coalition, to tackle missions with a very high level of threat and complexity where the F-35 was certainly indispensable to achieve its objectives ”.

To confirm the mature cooperation between the partners, the Major General, Peter Gersten of the USAF, commander of the Air Warfare Center (the Command that deals with developing the doctrine of future use of the weapon systems of the USAF and on which it also depends the Weapon School, or rather the Top Gun of the USAF), flew a Red Flag mission, with a F-35 of the 62nd FS, in a formation composed of two Italian pilots and a Norwegian pilot.

"It was an honor to fly with the Italian F-35 team of instructors during the Red Flag - he declared at the end -. Our network of alliances and partnerships is the backbone of global security, and exercises like the Red Flag help strengthen these relationships. Likewise, the F-35 program was designed to integrate strategic and allied partners so that we can better train ourselves to be ready to operate in real-world scenarios. It is essential that the technological tools we have available can be integrated to complete the mission we are called upon to perform in the best way, in the end it is the aviators of our nations that work together and make a real difference. I am proud to have taken part in the mission and to personally observe the professionalism of this extraordinary team ".

It was "a further note of pride for the Air Force and for Italy - underlined Colonel Igor Bruni, commander of the Military Representation - that, regardless of the undeniable leading role played by the F-35 in the Red FLag 19-2, our instructors have distinguished themselves during these two weeks, receiving personally, or as a member of the F-35 training, the recognition of Top Performer of the Mission , yet another demonstration of quality and competence " .

The Italian pilots of the 62nd FS are assigned to the branch of the Italian Military Representation of Eglin (Florida), an inter-force reality, reporting directly to the JSF Program Directorate of the General Secretariat of Defense, which is in charge of managing the training of all Italian military personnel (sailors, technicians and maintenance personnel), both of the Air Force and of the Navy, designated to operate on the national F-35 aircraft, in the "A" versions with conventional take-off and "B" with short take-off and vertical landing.

0 loss in 16 OCA missions, Neutralized more than 100 SAM !! wow Awesome!

[Corsair1963]

Yet, the critics know better........

[swiss]

In addition to the F-35As, the United States redeployed F-15C, F-15E, E-3 AWACS, an E-8 Joint Star and a USF MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, in addition to the EF-18G Growler of the US Navy.

Saudi Arabia fielded the brand new F-15SE fighters, Singapore the F-15SA, Belgium and the Netherlands the F-16A MLU, the United Arab Emirates a Squadron of F-16E Block 60.

Impressive. The crème de la crème of the US 4 gen Fighters where there.

"We knew we had an operating advantage, due to the 5th generation technology, but we didn't expect such a high rate of success - highlights the Major Emanuele A - in the 16 OCA missions (Offensive Counter Air) flown, against zero losses among the F-35s, we have neutralized more than 100 SAM systems ".

Awesome indeed. Would be interesting what kind of SAM we are talking about.

[sprstdlyscottsmn]

I find that odd, I don't think OCA is a SAM killing mission. That would be SEAD/DEAD.

[fbw]

I find that odd, I don't think OCA is a SAM killing mission. That would be SEAD/DEAD.

SEAD/DEAD is part of OCA mission framework. OCA is a pretty broad set.