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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is expected soon to declare the carrier-launched version its Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter ready to deploy, a major milestone nearly two decades in the making, according to sources familiar with the service’s plans.
The Navy is expected to announce the F-35C’s initial operating capability as early as Thursday, which would be in line with its previously announced intention to declare IOC in February 2019. The plans for an early 2019 IOC were initially spelled out in a 2013 report to Congress.
The declaration means the plane can deploy in some reduced capacity, but the jet has yet to reach full operational capability.
Navy officials did not provide a comment by press time.
The F-35C, a descendant of Lockheed Martin’s X-35 that first flew in 2000, will be substantially different from its Hornet forerunners when it is officially integrated into the carrier air wing. Some of its chief virtues lie more with what it won’t be shooting rather than what it will.
Its passive sensors and target-sharing capabilities accelerate the Navy down a path it’s been forging since China and Russia became challenges to U.S. primacy in the world: moving away from large, active sensors, such as the AN/SPY-1 anti-air warfare radars that are easy to detect with electronic warfare equipment, and relying more on passive sensors.
The Navy is driving toward combining the aircraft’s stealth characteristics with the ability to develop and share kill-quality target data with other aircraft — Super Hornets equipped with Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, for example, or even cruisers and destroyers specializing in anti-air warfare — allowing the fighter to let others do the shooting while it remains undetected.
And while electronic and cyber intrusions are ever-present concerns for the targeting network under development, the Navy’s fielding of missiles with ever-increasing range — such as Raytheon’s SM-6 — pushes the battlespace for the Navy’s surface shooters out to ranges that would be difficult to fathom three decades ago, the last time the U.S. had a significant geostrategic competitor.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2...-major-milestone-for-its-new-stealth-fighter/
The Navy is expected to announce the F-35C’s initial operating capability as early as Thursday, which would be in line with its previously announced intention to declare IOC in February 2019. The plans for an early 2019 IOC were initially spelled out in a 2013 report to Congress.
The declaration means the plane can deploy in some reduced capacity, but the jet has yet to reach full operational capability.
Navy officials did not provide a comment by press time.
The F-35C, a descendant of Lockheed Martin’s X-35 that first flew in 2000, will be substantially different from its Hornet forerunners when it is officially integrated into the carrier air wing. Some of its chief virtues lie more with what it won’t be shooting rather than what it will.
Its passive sensors and target-sharing capabilities accelerate the Navy down a path it’s been forging since China and Russia became challenges to U.S. primacy in the world: moving away from large, active sensors, such as the AN/SPY-1 anti-air warfare radars that are easy to detect with electronic warfare equipment, and relying more on passive sensors.
The Navy is driving toward combining the aircraft’s stealth characteristics with the ability to develop and share kill-quality target data with other aircraft — Super Hornets equipped with Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, for example, or even cruisers and destroyers specializing in anti-air warfare — allowing the fighter to let others do the shooting while it remains undetected.
And while electronic and cyber intrusions are ever-present concerns for the targeting network under development, the Navy’s fielding of missiles with ever-increasing range — such as Raytheon’s SM-6 — pushes the battlespace for the Navy’s surface shooters out to ranges that would be difficult to fathom three decades ago, the last time the U.S. had a significant geostrategic competitor.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2...-major-milestone-for-its-new-stealth-fighter/
