An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir March 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | by ROBERT TARRANT PhOtOS COURTESY OF LOCKHEED MARTIN WWW.F35.COM T he F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive military aircraft and one of the most ambitious defence pro- grammes ever embarked upon. As it stands, the project is over-budget by more than $150 billion and behind schedule a staggering seven years. With deployment due later this year, can the flaws be ironed out or will it be the most expensive 'white elephant' in military history? The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme was initiated to de- velop a next-generation fighter to fulfil the role set out by the US Dept of Defence 'to develop networked, integrated forces capable of attack-in-depth to disrupt, destroy and defeat adversary forces'. The scale and size of the project is unprecedented in US history, locking three military branches, the US Air Force, the Marine Corps and the US Navy, into one programme. Furthermore, the pro- gramme has been developed jointly with nine tiered partners con- tributing to the system design and development, who are privy to any technological gains and discoveries. The top tier includes the US and the UK, while other partners include Norway, the Nether- lands, Italy, Australia, Canada, Denmark and Turkey. The promise of the JSF programme is to deliver not one, but three, highly sophisticated supersonic, stealth, multirole fighters; one conventional, one short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL), and one aircraft carrier-capable. The contract for the futuristic fighter was awarded to Lock- heed Martin in 2001, beating off competition from Boeing. The designated 'F-35 Lightning II' is seen as a replacement to aircraft developed in the late 1960s and 1970s, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt, F/A-18 Hornet and AV8-B Harrier. The development of these earlier aircraft focused on two as- pects: speed and manoeuvre. These features increased the pilot's ability to win dogfights, provide close air support and intercept high-speed intruders. The transformation from reliance on these characteristics towards 'stealth' demonstrates a remarkable evo- lution in airpower doctrine. The ability to guarantee air dominance through technological superiority and advanced weaponry mirrors this change, as well that in Western strategic thinking. It also demonstrates a reaction to the continuing sophistication of anti-aircraft systems like the S-400, the Buk and the Bavar 373. Skunk Works, a division of Lockheed Martin, located in Palm- dale, California, continues its proud history of creating some of the world's stealthiest aircraft with their F-35 concept. Previous developments included the F-117 Nighthawk, the F-22 Raptor and the legendary spy plane the SR-71 Blackbird. At the core of the F-35 is its ability to fly undetected into enemy territory to identify and destroy targets, whether ground, air or infrastructure, without enemy forces being able to see it or strike back. This is achieved by the installation of stealth panels and coating as well as continuing advancement in the design of radar reflecting technology. One of the most flaunted components of the futuristic aircraft is the customised helmet-mounted display and sight system (HMDS), made up of two primary components, the Distributed Aperture System (DAS) and the Active Electronically Scanned Ar- ray (AESA). The DAS allows the aircraft to track aircraft or enemy missiles from a considerable distance and its 360° display allows the pilot to 'see' through the fusilage of the aircraft, day or night. The AESA is an advanced radar system developed by Northrop Grumman, which received the David Packard Excellence in Ac- quisition Award in 2010. It represents a major leap forward in the detection and mapping of aircraft and targets 'over the horizon'. Such an integrated system is expensive and the HMDS, each of which is fitted and customised to the pilot's preference, costs over $500k per unit. What exactly is displayed on the pilot's visor is classified, but the technology seems to resemble advanced versions of Google Glass crossed with the famed Google driverless car. Akin to the generational advance in design and technology, is the revolution in communications and networking. The F-35 is ad- ept at working in 'packs', allowing it to share live information with other F-35s, while also being networked to information gathering systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ground forces or satellites. This gives a particular advantage in penetrating the 'fog' surrounding the battlefield and enables them to co-ordinate attacks or manoeuvres with the added advantage of increased situational awareness, which is particularly important given the F-35's close air support role. Another system, the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), advances the diagnostics fundamentals of aeronautics through its high reliance on artificial intelligence in an uncondi-

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