18.04.2015, 19:00
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Zitat:The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter programme is considering integration of a new pod-mounted electronic warfare (EW) capability being developed independently, the deputy programme executive officer told IHS Jane's during the during the Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference on 14 April.
"Fundamentally, it's no different than the application of electronic warfare," Rear Admiral Randy Mahr said of the new kit, which he previously referred to as an "offensive cyber" capability. "You pick a target and you apply a signal to that target."
Rear Adm Mahr declined to name the company developing the capability, noting that such industry internal research and development (IRAD) initiatives are treated as proprietary technology.
He said the company is targeting the F-35 programme for sale of the capability because "they're looking at us and the evolution of the platform. We have the processing capability, and we have the knowledge of the battle space."
The admiral described the capability as a more nuanced application of EW than that of legacy systems. "Until now, we've been trying to disrupt radar," he explained. "The next step is to try to gain control of the weapon system."
Rear Adm Mahr likened the advancement of EW in the new system to the difference between gravity bombs and precision munitions. "So far in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, electronic warfare has been the massive application of a lot of energy; we've been able to direct that energy," he said. "Now we're looking to make that energy smaller and to do something with it. This is to get in to their control systems."
Meanwhile, the F-35 programme is also examining ways to open its architecture to the integration of new technology, Adm Mahr said. "We'd like to be able to open our systems so that we can bring more things in, like this cyber capability," he said. However, opening architectures after an aircraft has been completed is a challenging task, he acknowledged.
Still, there is precedent to opening architectures after the fact. The Boeing AV-8B Harrier and the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet are just two of the Pentagon's aircraft that have been subject to such changes that allowed for technology insertion. Asked when the F-35 might have a completely open architecture, Rear Adm Mahr said: "It's probably a decade away." One of the keys to opening the architecture will be integrating international weapons. Those efforts will help the programme "learn how to integrate things efficiently without have to rebuild the whole system", he said.