2015-08-06 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake

When Secretary Gates decided to put the F-35B on probation and Senator McCain became his powerful echo chamber we responded at the time on the pages of Breaking Defense that these actions were misguided.

We have spent many hours with the pilots, maintainers, builders, designers, and testers of the aircraft, and came to a very different conclusion:

“The F-35B – the Marines vertical takeoff version of the Joint Strike Fighter — is just one example of unique game changers.

It permits a significant increase in strategic and tactical potential across a force, across a fleet, and leverages new platforms being introduced to shape an innovative future.”

And with regard to Senator McCain, our judgment was that he was misfiring in his criticism, and really not taking the time to understand the impact of the USMC leadership into the future, which they were providing for the US services and the allies.

“The JSF is a fleet, not a single plane.

The senator never mentions the allies to whom the U.S. has committed to produce this aircraft soon and in manufactured numbers.

The allies are completely missing in the senator’s worldview, which is so Inside the Beltway.

The F-35 is part of enabling a coalition of like-minded states and of shaping a global fleet capability.

Notably, allies worldwide are building ships upon which the F-35B could land and operate.

The Italians have a carrier upon which the F-35B will land. And the senator apparently wishes to put our ability to work with the Italians and their generous hosting of the USN and Air Force in Italy at risk.”

When critics of the program convinced Secretary Gates to put the F-35B on probation in 2011 the Marines never wavered, even in the face of mounting criticism and diminishing support.

According to LtGen (Retired) George Trautman, the Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Aviation at the time,

“We knew that the problems with the aircraft were relatively minor and could be easily corrected.

We were also confident that the UK would eventually reverse their hasty decision to opt for another JSF variant.

For the Marine Corps and our allies, the F-35B represents an exponential increase in operational capability and there never was a moment when we considered taking a different TACAIR path.”

Now with the decision by the Commandant of the USMC to declare the F-35B operationally ready, one could continue to focus on the plane or the impacts of the plane moving forward on the other US services and the allies.

The declaration of IOC is not an in and of itself event; it is the start point on a decade ahead of fundamental transformation enabled with the emergence of an F-35 global fleet.

The global fleet of F-35s will be the first generation for building a foundation for a fundamental change in the way air power operates in overall combat concepts of operations.

It is not in and of itself a single aircraft platform; it is about what an integrated fleet of F-35s can deliver to TRANSFORM everything.

The decade ahead will be very innovative.

Squadron pilots and all combat warriors, at all ranks, can leverage what they learn and then apply those lessons to reshaping the force over and over.

The impact of an integrated fleet of F-35s with fused internal pilot combat data and also distributed information out, will allow the US and its allies to rethink how to do 21st century air-enabled operations.

Each F-35 will be able to network and direct engagements in 360-degrees of 3-dimensional space by offloading tracks to other air/land/sea platforms including UAVs and robots.

The Marines in declaring IOC become the trailblazers for significant change.

Core US allies soon to go IOC with their F-35B certainly see the Marines in that light.

A key example of course is the Royal Air Force, which is training with the Marines in the United States, and will build their first operational squadron in the United States and then fly to the UK in 2017 for embarking on their new carrier thereafter.

The Specifics of the UK Case

At Beaufort, like at Luke AFB between the USAF and the RAAF, planes are pooled. As Squadron Leader Hugh Nichols from the RAF and based at Beaufort noted: “Our aircraft are pooled with those of the Marines, and we fly aircraft in the pool not just the UK jet.”

He then went on to note that: “The Marines have done a fantastic job working through previous program difficulties and have blazed a trail towards bringing this next generation capability into service. They are Marines, and if anything gets in the way, they deal with it.

Working with them will clearly ensure that we are ready for the Queen Elizabeth. And the pooling agreement is important in terms of cross learning. Our young maintainers are working with Marine Corps maintainers and they are learning to work through different procedures and protocols to learn how to maintain a common airplane.”

The F-35 global enterprise is a key enabler of the use of collaborative resources.

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The Brits are training at Beaufort on F-35 equipment at the base – including the simulators – as their own facilities are stood up in the UK and the squadron grows before returning to the UK to get ready to work with the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The Brits are integrated members of the squadron and the Marine Corps and British maintainers are learning together how to adapt their specific maintenance protocols – which are different – to a common airplane.

Obviously, this will play real dividends down the road in terms of being able to cross deploy at sea.

And the Brits recognized that a software upgradeable airplane requires continuous upgrade in order to stay at the leading edge.

They are keeping a permanent detachment at Edwards AFB to remain engaged in the lifetime modernization envisaged for the F-35 global fleet.

https://sldinfo.com/preparing-to-operate-off-of-the-hms-queen-elizabeth-working-with-the-marines-at-vfmat-501/

And the preparation for the F-35 coming to the UK has led to new working relationships with the Dutch, and Norwegians to mention two core allies for the UK in a tense neighborhood, undergoing pressure from the Russians.

As Squadron Leader Hugh Nichols highlighted: “The majority of the operating areas big enough to fully utilize this aircraft will be out over the North Sea, so I can see us using this to our advantage by operating with our Northern European allies.

I would anticipate that there will be a lot of cooperation with Norwegians, Danes or the Dutch as we bring this exciting aircraft into service on European soil.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you in an A, a B or C, once airborne, the mission systems are the same.”

Such working relationships can be leveraged to reshape key challenges such as Baltic defense.

The Norwegians, the Dutch, and possibly the Danes and the Finns will all have F-35s and a completely integrated force which can rapidly be inserted without waiting for slower paced forces has to be taken seriously by Russia.

There is no time gap within which the Russians can wedge their forces, for Norway and Denmark are not likely to stand by and watch the Russians do what they want in the Baltics.

With the integrated F-35 fleet, they would need to wait on slower paced NATO deliberations to deploy significant force useable immediately in Baltic defenses.

Coming to the Pacific

The first USMC squadron is slated to go to the Pacific and there is no theater where the demand for the aircraft will be greater or the demand side higher in the first decade of its service life.

The US services and the allies view the plane as a means to an end – combat dominance via distributed operations in a very demanding and high-end theater of operations.

In a recent visit to Honolulu, visits to both MARFORPAC and PACFLEET provided insights into how the senior leadership of the Marines and PACFLEET see the coming of the aircraft to their Area of Operations.

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In an interview with Deputy MARFORPAC at the end of July 2015, Brigadier General Mahoney highlighted that the F-35 was not a silver bullet aircraft, but a core asset which the Marines in the Pacific would wring out its capability and empower the entire re-structuring of their forces in the Pacific.

“With IOC I hope we can stop talking as much about a platform and what it can do as airplane and continue hammer and tongs with the business of true 5th generation integration across the warfighting domains.

Our ability, as a Naval Expeditionary Force, to sense, visualize and understand a hugely complex environment, with F-35 as a critical transformative enabler, carries a significant competitive advantage.”

And certainly, the coming of the F-35B to the surface navy is viewed as re-shaping what an amphibious group can do, and which in turn allows other assets, surface and sub-surface to evolve their own modernization efforts to contribute to what the USN calls distributed lethality in the Pacific.

And it cannot be overlooked that as Marine pilots learn how to successfully fight the F-35B since some Marine Squadrons will also have the USN Carrier version, the F-35C, the learning curve for large deck carrier air group modernization will also be in work.

The question of the way ahead for the USN in the Pacific was discussed during the visit to Hawaii with Vice Admiral (Select) Aquilino.

In his current position, he is at the vortex of the operational capabilities and deployment of the fleet, and is positioned to understand the dynamics of shaping strategy up against the ongoing challenges and threats in the Pacific.

He described the way ahead as follows: “We need to have the ability to operate where it matters and when it matters. And we can do that.”

When asked what technologies are coming to the Pacific which will enhance his ability to implement that strategy, unprompted he quickly focused on the F-35, organic to the USN-USMC team, and the coming fleet in the Pacific.

“I mentioned earlier that our task is clearly that we need to have the ability to operate where it matters and when it matters.

The F-35 will enhance our ability to do so.

Although I am a naval aviator, I am not speaking as one when I make this point about the new aircraft.

It is a force multiplier and enhancer not just a new combat aircraft. It clearly will enhance or air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities, but it as a deployed and integrated sensor aircraft it extends our reach and expands our flexibility and agility.”

He focused on the F-35’s role organically with PACFLEET (on carriers and on amphibious ships) but also in terms of being able to draw from the sensor stream of a deployed USAF as well as allied force of F-35s.

“The integration of the sensor grid is a crucial and evolving capability which will be expanded as the F-35 enters the Pacific.”

And one ally which is focused clearly on the impact of the Marines on defense transformation and their mutual learning curve with them is Australia.

We will be reporting from Australia later during the trip, concerning the Royal Australian Air Force and MoD’s approach to defense transformation, which they call Plan Jericho.

The RAAF considers the F-35 as an entirely new type of aircraft, but its impact comes not simply from being a new type of aircraft but providing enhanced situational awareness, decision-making and spectrum dominance.

And the full value of the plane simply will not come by operating by itself as some sort of silver bullet, but operating in an effective manner with the other new platforms and with legacy systems which are themselves becoming shaped for 21st century operations.

In part, the challenge is to get past the replacement platform mentality.

The core air platforms have been or are being replaced but the task is not simply to learn the new platform and prepare for the next one in a narrowly defined functional area – fighter is a fighter, tanker is a tanker, a lifter is a lifter, an air battle manager is an air battle manger and so on down the 20th century species list – but to shape cross platform capabilities and to reshape how battle management, operations and warfare is conducted.

This is challenging for a small air force, which is already taxed in learning how to operate new platforms, and get them into operations.

The notion of preparing for the introduction of the F-35 and cross platform innovation will be evolved by testing new approaches to using other new platforms and leveraging them as well in new ways PRIOR to the F-35 becoming the dominant fighter in the RAAF.

In other words, the coming of the Marines to Darwin is not just about getting ground force integration better it is about interactive defense transformation. And that really is the meaning of the IOC declaration for the Marines – it is not the end of a process but the next phase in dealing with 21^st century combat threats and shaping more effective combat strategies.

Visionary Marines commanders went forward trusting all in the Corps to demonstrate that they were never really on probation.

For the original Breaking Defense version see the following:

http://breakingdefense.com/2015/08/the-f-35b-from-probation-to-transformation/

2015-08-03 With the stand-up of the first operational F-35 squadron comes the IOC for the new data link for the F-35 fleet.

The operational advantages of the new CNI system were highlighted by Major General Silveria of the Warfare Center at Nellis AFB.

The plane has NONE of the items that traditionally on airplanes to transmit and receive.  It does not have any of those.

What it has is a rack two CNI (Combat, Navigation and Identification),com ad navigation racks.

It has two racks and you tell the airplane: I would like to transmit in the UHF wave form and it generates that wave form and transmits in the UHF wave form; which is a difficult concept to think about.

There is no UHF radio on the airplane.

There is no ILS on the airplane.

If I want an ILS I have to go in, tap on my glass, and say, hey, good morning jet, I’m going to need an ILS today so I need you to generate the ILS waveform when I need it.

What does this mean in terms of performance and maintainability? 

I do not have to maintain what is not there; I do not need to be affected by failure rates of systems that are no longer there.

Let me use the example of the IFF transponder, which I do not have on the plane as a separate system. On an F-15 E, you can walk to the ramp and open up a panel and you can find a little box that has all sorts of cannon plugs on it and it would say ITT transponder.

And if it fails during the operation, when you come back you tell maintenance, it does not work.

They’d undue the cannon plugs, they’d pull out this IFF, they’d send it to the back shop, they’d go through all the testing, they’d figure out, they’d fix it, and it would come back.

They would put another one in.  Well, this airplane doesn’t have that to either fail or to fix.

Earlier, we looked at the role of the MADL data link for the laydown of the F-35 global fleet.

In a piece published on October 28, 2014, we looked at the coming of the MADL data link.

A key element shaping integrated air-enabled combat capability for the evolving F-35 fleet is clearly the communications and data link system built into the aircraft.

One of the core combat capabilities built into the aircraft is the CNI system or the Communications, Navigation and Identification system.

To get an update on the MADL data link within the CNI system, an interview was conducted in late July 2014 with two former USAF pilots and officers, who now work with Northrop Grumman, where MADL has been developed, to discuss its status and evolution and the approach to moving forward.

Fred Cheney is now a director of business development for Northrop Grumman Information Systems Communications Division, and formerly served with the USAF in the Pacific and Iraq operations.

Mike Edwards, a former USAF commander as well, is a director on staff with Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Question: What is MADL?

Fred Cheney: MADL stands for Multi-Function Advanced Data Link.

It operates in what is now being called anti-access and area denial operations where low observable capability is clearly crucial to mission success and you are linking those elements most central to shaping an entry and dominance strategy.

Its origins are from the communications and data links built for the F-22.

The IFDLlink has been designed to allow F-22s to work with other F-22s to enhance low observable performance.

It is designed to have Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) and Low Probability of Detection (LPD).

When the F-35 was being designed, designers were looking for that same kind of LPI and LPD capability but wanted to correct some of the shortfalls identified.

It is also the case that the F-35 was designed from the ground up to share data among the fleet and to operate in the combat environment in an integrated manner to deliver combat effects.

MADL is a different system than that carried by the F-22 and has longer-range, better throughput, and shares more data to support both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.

The point though is that MADL has been built on experience with the F-22; it is not just a system that was built simply from briefing charts.

And when the F-35 was first conceived, the legacy high-low mix was in the forefront.

Question: The F-35 and its combat systems have evolved and the impact of an integrated fleet of F-35s contemplated, the F-35 has emerged as a foundational 21st century capability.

You are not thinking high-low mix anymore; you are really thinking in terms of fleets, F-35, F-22, and legacy and the way to provide for better force integration going forward.

This means that clearly you are looking at ways to work on cross-linking as well?

Fred  Cheney: We are. On the Gulfstream II, we were able to connect F-35s and F-22s, because the new terminal actually has both Intra-Flight Data-Link (IFDL) and MADL in it.

Using that airplane, we were able to connect to both types of airplanes at the same time and transfer data between F-22s and F-35s.

In fact, MADL was designed based on prior experience with the F-22 to shape an integrated waveform for low observable operations, and can be leveraged for working to support combat operations throughout a joint or coalition force.

Question: But it seems clear that because the F-35 is an air-to-ground platform, MADL has been thought of differently, I would assume?

It seems clear that one is looking to leverage data and information for combat effectiveness via MADL.

Fred Cheney: It is.  In fact, it is best to think of the integrated impact of an F-35 fleet to be understood best as an information superiority combat capability.

And one is looking to ways to leverage its evolution as an information superiority fleet – versus simply an air platform providing situational awareness.

A way to look at the way ahead is to focus on the fleet working with joint or coalition C2 nodes to inform the leadership of the joint and coalition force of the evolving combat situation and to deliver effects throughout the rapidly evolving combat situation.

We are not thinking here in terms of information going to a centralized Air Combat Operations Center; we are thinking in terms of evolving distributed approaches, which allow combat to be directed and supported by resilient networks.

Clearly, an F-35 fleet can deliver integrated combat capability with the MADL sharing tool set; and then the question is how best to connect C2 nodes with that fleet, and how best to move relevant information from the fleet to appropriate combat elements.

There is no reason you cannot put MADL on ships, on other planes or on ground receivers.

In fact, as I mentioned before we recently tested a MADL radio system aboard a Gulfstream II and with F-35s, demonstrating one can now have a MADL-to-MADL link to other platforms.

OSD has deemed MADL to be the anti-access waveform, so finding ways to operate the waveform among forces will be important going forward.

It can also be overlooked that with MADL and the global F-35 enterprise we have created a coalition sharing integrated capability, which has never been done before.

It may be through the evolution of C2 nodes that MADL will be linked to the legacy fleet as well.

With the emergence of an initial MADL system, why wouldn’t you reuse that?

Why wouldn’t you start to pull that MADL waveform into other nodes, given that it is already paid for by the F-35 program, as well as inherently coalition common?

Question: Clearly putting the F-35 fleet into the hands of the war fighters will see significant change and probably more rapidly than people anticipate?

How do you think of the role of the USMC in all of this and the positive impact of the USMC being a lead service in deploying the first F-35 squadrons?

Mike Edwards: It is very positive in one very important way: the Marines are a smaller and more tightly integrated force.

They will work very hard to draw every capability they can out of a combat system, and in this sense, the F-35 will be no different.

But given its integrated combat capability, figuring out how to leverage it for the overall integrated Marine Corps force will be a high priority for them.

And this can also see a similar process with coalition partners.

Because with a smaller force, they will be looking at how are they going to reapply what they have in their tool kit to solve those problems?

And that’s where the new think starts to occur.

Question: We have been looking at how the Marines have evolved their KC-130Js and have deployed Harvest Hawk.

One USMC pilot highlighted that in his mind, there is no reason that they could not have MADL on board and distribute what is relevant to the ground forces as part of their approach to close air support.

Would the system you are testing be relevant to this possibility?

Mike Edwards: Indeed, it would, and it gets to the most fundamental point – where the C2 node is can vary; but having a robust data and communications link which is empowered by an integrated fleet of combat aircraft, provides significant possibilities for innovation.

And we are on the cusp of significant innovations.

We are the period of discovery with what we can do with MADL and an integrated air combat fleet of F-35s can deliver to the combat force.

We don’t even know yet what the full potential is.

And we may not know for a while until we hit one of those hard problems.

And then some young, bright person says hey, you know what?  If we did X, Y, and Z, we could actually solve this problem.

And we have cases of that occurring all the time in combat situations.

And that’s one of the things that I think makes our military so great.

Fred Cheney: There is another aspect of the way ahead which is important to highlight as well, and that is logistics costs.

The Link 16 experience demonstrates how quasi-commonality limits supportability.

There are many vendors of Link 16 terminals all around the world, and you then lose the advantage of having economies of scale.

And you think logistics isn’t very exciting or interesting, but it takes a lot of dollars that you would rather spend on combat capabilities if you do not leverage commonality and global sourcing of common parts.

And commonality is both important and a continuing challenge.

Commonality is built into the aircraft; the challenge will be keep commonality built in, for there will be the temptation to think this is a replacement aircraft and data system, and there will be tendency to think in terms of interoperability rather than integration provided by an F-35 fleet where the various services and partners can seamlessly share data and provide information to the C2 nodes, which will evolve appropriate to 21stcentury operations.

You’ve got to be careful, however, that you don’t develop a problem like Link 16 has with interoperability.

People started to tinker with it, and all of a sudden we lost track of being able to talk with every coalition partner, and the Air Force being able to talk to Navy.

It’s very important to do improvements, but they must be done as a fleet.

https://sldinfo.com/crafting-21st-century-integrated-air-enabled-combat-capability-the-madl-contribution/

And with the declaration of IOC for the F-35B, Northrop Grumman released this press release on August 3, 2015:

With the U.S. Marine Corps achieving F-35B initial operating capability (IOC), the Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) waveform developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been proven a key combat-ready capability of the F-35 Lightning II program.

MADL is a high-data-rate, directional communications link that allows fifth-generation aircraft to communicate and coordinate tactics covertly. During testing of the Lockheed Martin F-35, MADL exceeded 1,000 flight hours.

The Marine Corps declared the F-35B short takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) aircraft and the first squadron – Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121), known as the Green Knights – officially operational July 31. VMFA-121, based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, is equipped with 10 aircraft.

“Northrop Grumman congratulates the Marine Corps on their achievement of this momentous F-35 milestone,” said Jeannie Hilger, vice president and general manager, communications division, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. “The successful completion of IOC also validates Northrop Grumman’s more than 10-year effort to advance communication among fifth-generation aircraft.”

MADL is part of Northrop Grumman’s F-35 integrated communications, navigation and identification (CNI) avionics and an important element of the F-35 Block 2 software release. Northrop Grumman has delivered 181 CNI systems to Lockheed Martin, the F-35 prime contractor.

Since August 2012, MADL has been used continuously to support a variety of developmental and operational objectives during testing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Block 2B MADL testing culminated with four F-35s demonstrating that data passed among the aircraft via MADL could be correlated with data from other F-35 sensors and fused to form a unified situational awareness picture on cockpit displays.

“In addition to fifth-to-fifth, Northrop Grumman’s CNI system also provides a core capability for fifth-to-fourth generation networked data sharing and unparalleled interoperability,” Hilger said, citing a series of operational flight tests under the Jetpack Joint Capability Technology Demonstration program.

As part of the Jetpack JCTD program, Northrop Grumman developed the Freedom 550™ software-defined radio that bridges fifth-to-fourth generation platform interoperability gaps. Jetpack JCTD, which concluded in 2014, was sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command, Pacific Command and OSD’s Defense Microelectronics Activity.

Northrop Grumman’s integrated CNI system provides to F-35 pilots the equivalent capability of over 27 avionics subsystems. By using its industry-leading software-defined radio technology, Northrop Grumman’s design allows the simultaneous operation of multiple critical functions while greatly reducing size, weight and power demands on the advanced fighter. These functions include Identification Friend or Foe, automatic acquisition of fly-to points, and various voice and data communications, including MADL, which was approved by the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Requirements Oversight Council for use on all low-observable platforms.

As a principal member of the Lockheed Martin-led F-35 industry team, Northrop Grumman performs a significant share of the work required to develop and produce the aircraft. In addition to developing and producing the CNI system, Northrop Grumman produces the center fuselage; designed and produces the AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System sensor and the aircraft’s radar and electro-optical subsystem; develops mission systems and mission planning software; leads the team’s development of pilot and maintenance training system courseware; and manages the team’s use, support and maintenance of low-observable technologies.

http://www.yourindustrynews.com/northrop+grumman-developed+stealthy+data+link+validated+as+combat+ready+with+us+marine+corps_119458.html