Atlantic Trident [F-35A Participation Block 2B restriction]

[spazsinbad]

Atlantic Trident
August 2017 Brian W. Everstine

"The best fighter aircraft in the world—US Air Force F-22s and F-35s, British Typhoons, and French Rafales—gathered at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., in April to drill on air combat, hone alliance skills, and practice collaborative air supremacy.

Atlantic Trident 2017 was the second trilateral exercise among the countries, focused on preparing for high-end air combat. They flew together against US-supplied “Red Air” to test both the aircraft and their pilots. “You can have the most capable aircraft in the world,” said Col. Peter M. Fesler, the commander of Langley’s 1st Fighter Wing, but if a pilot can’t perform, “he will be beat.” Speaking with Air Force Magazine as the exercise wound down, Fesler explained, “That’s why training matters; it’s why we have to do things like [this exercise]. You can’t just buy airpower. … Warfare is still a human endeavor.”...

...For the second edition of the exercise, F-22s weren’t enough. The Air Force needed more fifth generation capability and called on Air Education and Training Command’s main F-35 wing to participate. USAF’s only operational F-35s, assigned to Hill AFB, Utah, were in Europe at the time of the exercise. Making the F-35A’s first overseas deployment, jets from Hill flew to RAF Lakenheath, UK, for training with RAF units and with USAF F-15s stationed there. The F-35s made brief visits to Estonia and Bulgaria, to demonstrate their rapid deployability even from an already-deployed location.

Therefore, the “Gorillas” of Eglin’s 58th FS flew up to Langley, but only for part of the exercise. “We couldn’t afford to be away for three weeks,” Bashore said.

The F-35s flew in packages with the F-22 doing both offensive and defensive dogfight missions. The Raptors performed the air superiority mission, while the F-35s took on air-to-ground. The two USAF fifth generation fighters called on the Typhoons and Rafales for additional firepower in these missions, Bashore said. “When you have these assets all together, it makes us all the more lethal,” he observed.

The F-35 squadron sent instructor pilots to fly in the exercise, to capture lessons about the strengths and limitations of the aircraft, and so they could in turn pass this information on to students. Eglin’s F-35s are flying with the Block 2B software suite. It is more limited than the Block 3I suite on Hill’s operational F-35s.

The Man in the Machine
For the exercise, the jets were held to a top speed of Mach 1.6, a maximum 50 degree angle of attack, and seven G turns. Despite these limits, the F-35s were still able to use stealth and sensors to make a difference, Bashore said. The strike fighters brought an advantage in situations where they could stay on station longer and use sensors to pass along a “common picture” of the battlespace to the other fighter aircraft.

Much of the public attention on Atlantic Trident was on the jets themselves. It marked the first time USAF F-35As have flown in a large exercise with Eurofighter Typhoons and Dassault Rafales and was one of the earliest large-scale integration exercises combining all three with the F-22. It was about more than the exotic iron on the ramp, though.

“There’s been a lot of interest in the machines. ‘Which airplane is better? What are their capabilities? How are you using them?’ ” Fesler said. “The thing I think is particularly interesting: The man in the machine matters tremendously.”

For the F-35s from Eglin, Atlantic Trident was a rare opportunity to fly with allied aircraft instead of single-type training sorties on Florida’s Emerald Coast. The human element needs to evolve alongside the aircraft so pilots from individual countries can operate in an alliance and know how to work together.

“All these aircraft have tremendous capabilities, but if we don’t plan them and integrate them and understand each other’s capabilities and limitations, and use them to their full potential, then we could lose in any combat scenario,” Bashore said. “It’s more about the human element.”"

Source: http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArch ... ident.aspx

[amamilaviationspotter]

Interesting. Figured since the 58th from Eglin were training the instructors for the F-35 they would maybe be flying some 3i block aircraft. Guess in the end though, shows what this aircraft is capable of, even at those lower blocks. 3F can't get here soon enough (and down the road 4). Wonder how soon the Eglin guys will upgrade.....maybe waiting until 3F is fielded and will just jump to that next year or so.

[Dragon029]

I don't know how reliable this source is (the language used sounds biased), but this article claims to have some leaked info about the exercise that's interesting if true:

https://patratora.gr/archives/213112

English translation:

"Wildwood" in Rafale, Eurofighter and F-15E from the F-35 in epic jockeys in the "Atlantic Trident"!
October 8, 2017 WORLD , NEWS

The F-35A's overwhelming superiority was recorded in some of the most epic avant-garde fights in NATO history when the USAF fighter met for the Atlantic Trident (April 12-18), French Rafale fighters and British Eurofighter Typhoon , some results from which they began to leak.

The F-22 fighters of the USAF also participated in the exercise.

The score was overwhelmingly in favor of US fighters, of course the 5th generation, but the issue for the Greek side is not how the European fighters behaved against the F-22, but against the F-35, as in six months "tired" Mirage 2000 and F-16 third generation, PA will have to face the Turkish F-35A.

Rafale and Eurofighter were fired by AIM-120 long before they realized there was an enemy in the shooting position.

The AP-81, the F-35 radar tracking track at distances over 230 km of locking at distances of over 150 km and firing at the firing limit of AIM-120 with the Anglo-English fighters, literally did not know "from which came "!

They never reached distances of less than 30 km and when all the English-style fighters did it, they were destroyed!

All of this from an aircraft that was not designed as an airborne aircraft against aircraft designed as airborne aircraft (let's say Airflight was emphasized in Rafale), but it has now shown that the 4th of the 5th generation separates it real chaos, as it is not just the stealth features, it is also the electronic systems that give the overwhelming avant-garde.

It was impressed that neither Eurofighter's IRST system was useful, as the F-35's shots were out of range.

In the exercises F-15E fighters took part with the enemy forces and they had the same luck.

The question then is how do some people in Greece consider spending an enormous amount (1 billion initially and up to 3 billion dollars later) to upgrade old F-16s that, because they will acquire AESA radar, will be able to articulate "Dissuasive" reason against the hordes of the Turkish F-35!

When the senior Rafale and Eurofighter are presumed to "eat wildwood" from the USAF fighters, which even - and this has its significance - do not even have a complete flight envelope, as it is believed that the fighter is still evolving!

[armedupdate]

Seems pretty legit. The site is a Greek mainstream new site.

[krorvik]

All of this from an aircraft that was not designed as an airborne aircraft against aircraft designed as airborne aircraft

And journos still get this wrong. Maddening.

The rest of course, is cool!

[hythelday]

But was there a single issue of F-35 appearing in the gun sight of EF/Rafale for a couple of seconds that would make the PIRATE/active stealth crowd go ape and post F-35 silhuette pictures as proof of canard superiority?

[doge]

Rafale and Eurofighter were fired by AIM-120 long before they realized there was an enemy in the shooting position.

The AP-81, the F-35 radar tracking track at distances over 230 km of locking at distances of over 150 km and firing at the firing limit of AIM-120 with the Anglo-English fighters, literally did not know "from which came "!

They never reached distances of less than 30 km and when all the English-style fighters did it, they were destroyed!

It's extremely interesting story!
Forecast is roughly like this? (I think ② is unlikely...)

[steve2267]

The Rafale / Typhoon were probably hauling bags of gas... so highly unlikely their RCS was down around 0.1 m^2. Your interpretation seems very reasonable to me.

[krorvik]

But was there a single issue of F-35 appearing in the gun sight of EF/Rafale for a couple of seconds that would make the PIRATE/active stealth crowd go ape and post F-35 silhuette pictures as proof of canard superiority?

"They never reached distances of less than 30 km"

That'd be one hell of an impressive lobshot.

[Dragon029]

According to the article, 230km was the range at which it was tracking those jets as well, implying that its detection range would have been >300km for the same (I'm also inclined to say ~1m^2) targets.

[wrightwing]

Apparently the kill ratios for the F-35 were 18:0 vs Rafale, 19:0 vs Typhoon, and 16:1 vs F-15E.

[eloise]

Apparently the kill ratios for the F-35 were 18:0 vs Rafale, 19:0 vs Typhoon, and 16:1 vs F-15E.

Where does that come from?

[playloud]

Apparently the kill ratios for the F-35 were 18:0 vs Rafale, 19:0 vs Typhoon, and 16:1 vs F-15E.

Where does that come from?

The quoted article. It might have been updated since originally posted.

[Dragon029]

When did you first view the article? When I posted it above it didn't have any ratios and refreshing it just now there aren't any ratios.

[sferrin]

Apparently the kill ratios for the F-35 were 18:0 vs Rafale, 19:0 vs Typhoon, and 16:1 vs F-15E.

Wow. Like, "clubbing baby seals".