F-35C Advanced Sensors, Situational Awareness ‘Game-Changer'

[spazsinbad]

Navy Air Boss: F-35C Advanced Sensors, Situational Awareness a ‘Game-Changer’
09 Jun 2015 Gidget Fuentes

"NORTH ISLAND NAVAL AIR STATION, Coronado, Calif. – The Navy’s top aviator checked out a simulator for its next-generation fighter jet, the F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), on Monday and lauded its advanced capabilities that will give it a leg up compared to legacy strike aircraft.

A “game-changer,” said Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of Naval Air Forces, is the ability for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to “suck in all that information” from various sensors and fuse it together to give pilots information in “a great, clear picture of who’s good and who’s bad.”...

...Shoemaker, who took command of the air fleet in January, acknowledged the Navy is seen as “soft” on the F-35 and “behind” [SOOoooo BEhindddd....] the Air Force and the Marine Corps – the latter expects to reach the critical initial operational capability (IOC) declaration this summer – in getting the jet into the fleet. Funding lags have delayed delivery in sufficient numbers, he said. But the service is on track to get its carrier version of the JSF into its air wings with its IOC targeted for 2018, he said.

Officials describe the jet’s fifth-generation platform as a jump in capability from current tactical aircraft the Navy flies. The “all-sensor fusion” refers to advanced suites of integrated electronics some refer to as the “brains” of the aircraft, particularly when paired up with the pilot’s helmet-mounted display and networked with the rest of the strike group and joint force. That, Shoemaker said, “is probably the most critical capability it delivers.”

“We’ve really have to solve a long-range combat ID problem,” he said, in “both air-to-air and air-to-surface – and this platform will bring that long-rage ID capability and then share that information.”...

...Compared to Boeing’s F/A-18E-F Super Hornet, “it’s very similar, from a skill-set perspective,” he said. “It’ll be fairly similar and easy to transition from something like a Super Hornet.”

Mark Johnson, a Lockheed Martin spokesman, noted “the computers do so much more of the flying now that the pilot has an opportunity to be really more of a tactician in the air.”

More refined information, such as identifying a particular enemy tank on the ground rather than just seeing “something” in the blip, Johnson said, “is a big deal. It is one of the tools in this particular aircraft that the people who fly it talk about the ‘big epiphany.’”...

...The advanced jets will comprise one-fourth of the strike power on carrier decks by 2025, Shoemaker said. They will be joined on the flight deck by Super Hornets and Boeing’s EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets, which “will very much complement what this brings to the strike group,” he said. “We really need to deliver this to those future air wings.”

The jet’s advertised stealth capabilities and advantage have raised some doubts, particularly with advances in detection technology that might make it harder to hide even advanced aircraft. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert’s comments earlier this year questioning stealth’s advantages added to the concerns.

But Shoemaker said that, while advanced radar presumably could detect stealth aircraft, “stealth makes a difference. It still is very important.”

“If we have stealth platforms being protected by Growlers, you push that detection range way back,” he added. “It forces the enemy to do some things outside of the regular radar bands that will protect our assets.”...

...The future air wing would have one F-35C squadron, three Super Hornet squadrons with Growlers included and “hopefully” an unmanned squadron such as the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS), he said, noting “that capability will be key.”

The Navy plans to replace its aging fleet of F/A-18A and F/A-18C single-seat Hornet jets with the F-35C. The final costs per jet, now averaging $125 to $130 million, could drop closer to the $90-to $100-million target cost as the program matures, Shoemaker said, calling it “a tremendous value.”

“This will be an expensive aircraft to operate,” he said, which will necessitate more simulator-based training. Pilots will practice complex tactics in a virtual environment more than pilots do now, he said, which will actually provide more realistic training in some scenarios.

“We’re a bit challenged from a range [hhaaahhhaaaa wrong range ] perspective,” he said of current live training. Military officials have complained that constraints – environmental as well as airspace availability – in the Navy’s air ranges that can hamper realistic training. Pilots in the simulator “will be able to practice everything, … (even) things they might not be able to see flying live at Fallon (NAS),” the Navy’s premier range, he said....

Source: http://news.usni.org/2015/06/09/navy-ai ... me-changer

[popcorn]

F-35 takes out the bad guys but after they've launched. Hence all the emphasis on ISR and honeycombing the battlespace with sensor-shooters to shorten response times in dealing with threats.

https://youtu.be/Ucr7zH_Q0YI

[charlielima223]

F-35 takes out the bad guys but after they've launched. Hence all the emphasis on ISR and honeycombing the battlespace with sensor-shooters to shorten response times in dealing with threats.

https://youtu.be/Ucr7zH_Q0YI

*sarcasm* all that technology being poured into the F-35 and they can't have graphics that are equal to Battle Field or Call of Duty?! What the hell are we paying for than?!

[spazsinbad]

Do you refer to the video or the F-35 PCD Panoramic Cockpit Display?