JAN 9, 2018 @ 11:17 AM
Loren
Thompson , CONTRIBUTOR
Modern warfare is waged largely on the electromagnetic
spectrum. Although bombs and missiles get the headlines, they are just the
kinetic step in a "kill chain" that relies heavily on electronic
sensors and computers to detect, track, prioritize and target enemy assets. If
the enemy is technologically advanced, it will be using its own array of
electronic devices to deceive, disrupt or destroy attacking forces. These
defensive measures will typically include methods for interfering with the
electronic signals that smart bombs depend on for accuracy.
The struggle to control and exploit the electromagnetic
spectrum makes today's conflicts fundamentally different from those of the
past. Although Sun Tzu understood 2000 years ago that success in war often
depends on deception, the opportunities to confuse, disorient and demoralize
adversaries have multiplied as the military enterprise came to depend so
heavily on electronic tactics and tools. Electronic warfare thus is a central
feature of military strategy for the foreseeable future.
Which brings me to the Pentagon's biggest weapons
program, the F-35 fighter. Begun at the dawn of the new millennium two decades
ago, the F-35 program is providing the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps with
replacements for most of their Cold War tactical aircraft (nearly 300 have
already been delivered). Three distinctly different variants of the plane will
supply each service with performance features tailored to their unique
requirements, in an exceptionally agile and versatile aircraft designed to be
far more survivable than those that came before.
If you have paid any attention to the F-35 program, then
you know that stealth technology is critical to its survival in wartime.
Stealth, also known as low-observable technology, enables the aircraft to avoid
danger by minimizing features that can be detected using radars or heat-seeking
sensors. For instance, radar signals are either deflected by the fighter's
shape or absorbed by its materials, so little energy returns to the radar that
can be used to track the plane.
The F-35 has an integrated stealth design, meaning it not
only minimizes "signatures" in the microwave segment of the spectrum
used by radar, but also the infrared and visible-light segments exploited by
electro-optical sensors. Emissions from on-board communications equipment are
also managed to leave enemies with few options for finding the fighter. So
while a long-wavelength search radar might occasionally detect a distant F-35,
there will usually be no way of tracking or targeting it.
This is the main reason why F-35s are achieving kill
ratios of 20-to-1 in simulated combat against adversary aircraft. As one pilot
of an adversary fighter put it, "We just can't see them like they can see
us. It can feel like you are out there with a blindfold on trying to find
someone in a huge space." This state of being nearly defenseless harkens
back to pre-radar days, when a very worried Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
warned the British Parliament that "the bomber will always get
through."
But there is more to F-35 survivability than stealth. All
three variants of the fighter are equipped with a highly automated
electronic-warfare system that disrupts and deceives enemy electronic
capabilities -- not just radars, but heat-seeking missiles, communications
networks and navigation signals. The combination of this advanced
electronic-warfare system with F-35 stealth, speed, agility and weapons assures
the U.S. and its allies will have unfettered access to hostile air space
through mid-century, and probably beyond.
The F-35's electronic-warfare system is built by BAE
Systems, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Britain's biggest defense contractor.
Like F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems is a longtime contributor
to my think tank and consulting client. But the company is so reserved in
discussing features of the system that I didn't bother to solicit comments for
this story. Fortunately, there are a few other sources one can turn to for a
general grasp of how effectively F-35 maneuvers in the electromagnetic realm.
Unlike legacy tactical aircraft that had
"federated" electronic-warfare systems, the F-35 architecture is
highly integrated. Radio-frequency and electro-optical receivers are embedded
around the edge of the airframe to provide continuous sensing of hostile
emitters in every direction, with collections from all sensors fused through a
central computer before being displayed on the visor of the pilot's helmet. The
system also merges information from off-board sensors to provide a
comprehensive picture of the local electronic environment.
F-35 is the first fighter that integrates threat data
from across the relevant segments of the spectrum before displaying it to the
pilot. That reduces the time required to respond to dangers while also easing
pressure on the pilot. In fact, if the pilot is preoccupied with other facets
of the mission, the EW system will automatically generate the optimum solution
to a threat, whether that means jamming a radar, releasing chaff to confuse it,
or launching false targets (usually high-tech flares) to draw away heat-seeking
missiles.
Onboard EW functions are closely coupled with the F-35's
agile radar, which like many other onboard electronic systems is built by
Northrop Grumman. The radar is used not only to track and target potential
threats, but also to generate jamming signals that overload enemy sensor and
communication receivers so that they cannot be used effectively. These
software-driven functions must be performed with great precision to generate
effects at the exact frequencies where hostile emitters are operating without
disrupting signals used by friendly forces.
Because the F-35's EW architecture is fully digitized, it
weighs less, needs less space, and requires less power than legacy technology.
However, the F-35 provides much greater electrical power for electronic
applications than last-generation aircraft, enabling it to collect information
and generate effects over larger areas. The radar is designed to generate
highly directional signals for jamming so that emitters in specific locations
can be disrupted without causing collateral effects elsewhere in the
battlespace.
To summarize, the F-35 is essentially self-sufficient in
its capacity to detect, localize, prioritize and defeat hostile emitters. It
not only doesn't require dedicated support aircraft, but it can act as a
jamming aircraft for other planes that are not so well-endowed. Whatever
information a particular pilot cannot get from his or her onboard systems can
generally be obtained from off-board sources (including other F-35s) via secure
data links. This is yet another way in which the Pentagon's biggest program is
building the foundation for U.S. global air dominance in the decades ahead.
Original post: forbes.com
F-35 Lightning II: Details
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