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The F-35 and F-22 Teach Each Other New Tricks
[USAF Magazine] At the outset of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, there were high expectations that it would benefit from lessons learned from its elder stablemate, the F-22 Raptor, also made by Lockheed Martin. Now, a dozen years after the F-22’s operational debut and two years after the F-35 was declared ready for combat, the flow of lessons learned is running both ways. The two fifth generation fighter programs are working together to reduce costs and make both systems more effective. The F-22 has been a pathfinder for the F-35: Its formations and methods of employment are a model for the junior fighter. In return, the small F-22 fleet is gaining economy-of-scale benefits by getting in on parts buys with the far larger‐and growing‐F-35 fleet. More advanced and hardier stealth features on the F-35 are working their way back to the F-22, the two aircraft share radar features, and operational and manufacturing experience with the F-35 are helping define upgrades for the Raptor. "The F-35 and F-22 were always meant to operate alongside one another, so it makes a lot of sense to apply that same logic to the programmatic side of both platforms," said Lockheed Martin F-35 program manager Jeff A. Babione. "We’re constantly taking advantage of newer, more advanced technologies and processes. If we can apply the same advances to the F-35 and F-22, we drive costs down and pull schedules to the left on both programs." The F-22 pioneered fifth generation tactics and those are being applied straight to the F-35, according to Col. Paul "Max" Moga, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla. The 33rd trains new F-35 pilots, but Moga spent years in the F-22, as an instructor and demonstration pilot and later as a squadron commander, after starting out in F-15s. Regarding employment techniques on the F-22 and F-35, "I would describe them as a direct transfer," Moga said. In the F-22, the key to employment is "managing signature, sensor, and what we refer to as ’flow,’ " which he explained is how the plane and pilot sense the battlespace, steer between threats, and get into the optimum position to engage. That same concept applies to the F-35, he said. Though fourth generation aircraft pilots have to manage visual and infrared signatures, "it’s not until you get in the fifth gen world that you really concern yourselves with radar signature management. ... That is a core competency of any fifth gen platform, and that is a direct transfer over from the F-22 to the F-35." Pilots of both jets must "manage our signature as we employ the aircraft and optimize our survivability and lethality," Moga said. Posted by: Besoeker 2018-01-02 |
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