While Raptors can receive over the Link 16 network—the standard across US and NATO aircraft—it can’t transmit over the system. Instead, it uses the F-22-only Intra-Flight Data Link (IFDL).
While USAF presses on with TAC- Link 16, it’s looking for industry to supply a quick means to bridge fourth and fifth generation aircraft.
The Link 16 system, which dates back to the development of the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System starting in the mid-1970s, broadcasts on a frequency that can easily be picked up by enemy signals intelligence. New systems transmit data in a more stealthy manner.
Boeing’s secretive Phantom Works division is testing a program allowing the F-22 to communicate securely with its fourth generation air superiority counterpart, the F-15C Eagle. The US Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) office in Air Combat Command worked alongside Boeing’s Phantom Works to develop Talon HATE: a communications translator pod carried on the F-15C. The 17-foot, 1,844-pound pod includes an adaptive sensor, multidomain information processor, and a network communications gateway that allows the Eagle to communicate with the F-22 securely over a common data link, according to Boeing.
“They offer a giant leap forward in tactical fighter capability with real-time connectivity and expanded information sharing,” Sampson said. “Boeing demonstrated secure data link connections between F-15Cs and F-22s in a way that integrates information for the pilot in a common operating picture.”
Northrop Grumman has pitched a different way to help F-22s and F-35s securely talk in flight, by adding another aircraft—Northrop suggests its own RQ-4 Global Hawk—to fly in the area with its “Freedom 550” radio. This “production-ready … software-defined” radio is built using avionics Northrop developed for both the F-35 and F-22. That means the system can translate among IFDL, MADL, and Link 16.
Northrop tested the radio through more than 400 flight hours in 2014 as part of an Air Force-sponsored experiment called the Jetpack Joint Capability Technology Demonstration.
In February 2017, the company conducted a trial with the United Kingdom Royal Air Force, integrating the radio with the F-35B and Typhoon FGR4 aircraft. During the UK Ministry of Defense-funded trial, called Babel Fish III, Northrop’s system translated F-35B messages to Link 16, which was received by the Typhoon.
The demonstration was the first time non-US fifth and fourth generation aircraft have shared stealthy data, according to Northrop.
“Being able to network sensor data between fifth generation and fourth generation fast-jets and other battlespace assets in a stealthy matter is critically important to enabling the full capability offered by fifth generation aircraft,” said Andrew Tyler, the chief executive of Northrop Grumman Europe, in a statement announcing the demonstration.
The F-22’s inability to share data has been an issue afflicting USAF operations since the fleet became operational. Some have speculated that the lack of stealth data sharing kept the Raptor from participating in the 2011 air campaign in Libya.
In July 2017, all types of USAF stealth aircraft—F-22s, F-35As, and B-2 bombers—participated in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, Nev. Marine Corps F-35Bs participated, as well. Pilots needed to talk with each other over “secure voice” systems as the jets flew “strategic attack scenarios” against an integrated air defense system, said Capt. Neil M. Fournie, the advanced warfighting chief of the 414th Combat Training Squadron.
Because the F-35 does have the the ability to share over Link 16, it was a more capable “quarterback” in that fight, when the battle was taking place in a “permissive” environment. During Red Flag 17-1, five months earlier, F-35As from Hill AFB, Utah, flew with British Typhoons to take out a “high-value target” in a training exercise. The F-35 pilots used Link 16 data to communicate with the Typhoons, while also using MADL to share a greater level of data, stealthily, with other F-35s.
“The thing that’s great about having Link 16 and MADL onboard and the sensor fusion is the amount of situational awareness the pilot has,” said Lt. Col. George Watkins, commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill, in a release about the mission. “I’m able to directly communicate with specific formations, and I can see the whole war and where all the players are from a God’s-eye view. That makes me more effective because I know who to talk with and at what times, over the secure voice.”
While the legacy Link 16 system lets F-35 pilots speak with older aircraft, the advanced system is the preferred method.
“It’s the data link that we use to communicate just between F-35s,” he said. “It’s a solid architecture and from my experience it’s been very stable. The pilots rely on it for fighting, and at night we fly what we call sensor formations and we use MADL to keep our situational awareness.”
Speaking last March, shortly after that Red Flag exercise, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein detailed this capability as he highlighted the need for next generation, multidomain command and control. F-35s, he said, were not only fusing information from other aircraft, but also from cyber and space assets that were participating in the exercise. The exercise included a combat search and rescue scenario, all while facing the threats of air defenses.
The F-35’s situation, as displayed on the pilot’s visor, was also “replicated in other command-and-control agencies,” which allowed the F-35 pilot to “perform as the quarterback of the joint team, as they went in to accomplish all of these simultaneous missions,” Goldfein said. “So when I talk to you about situational awareness, this was an example at the tactical level to produce operational effects.”
JB Langley-Eustis, Va., as one of the service’s major Raptor bases, has hosted premiere fighters of close allied air forces in training missions meant to ensure they can cooperate on “Night One” of a major operation. The first of two Atlantic Trident exercises in 2015 brought together United Kingdom Eurofighter Typhoons, French Dassault Rafales, and USAF F-22s in an attempt to “get back into high-end training,” Royal Air Force Chief of Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford said at the outset of the exercise. The war game focused on logistics and getting the aircrews acquainted in operating together, including addressing issues of communication in the air.
In April 2017, the three types of advanced jets came back together at Langley for the second iteration of the exercise and to build on the initial progress. For the second round, the Air Force also sent F-35As. The pilots needed to refine their communication and tactics, so they would be ready for “Night One interoperability,” then-1st Fighter Wing Commander Col. Peter M. Fesler told Air Force Magazine. The aircraft flew 510 sorties together over three weeks.
“All these aircraft have tremendous capabilities, but if we don’t plan them and integrate them and understand each other’s capabilities and limitations—and use them to their full potential—then we could lose in any combat scenario,” said Lt. Col. Brad Bashore, commander of the 58th Fighter Squadron.
The possibilities for improved secure communication and data sharing will touch the Air Force’s mobility community, as well.
Air Mobility Command chief Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II floated an idea at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference last September that USAF’s 11,000-plus mobility aircraft, including KC-135s, KC-10s, and soon KC-46s, could link F-22s and F-35s during combat operations. “Why not use them as relay platforms?” Everhart asked.
Tankers could automatically offload data collected by F-35 and F-22 sensors, freeing up the fighters’ onboard cache, while also getting intelligence and surveillance data to analysts in a timely manner.
All of these programs, tests, and evaluations are aimed at near-term solutions, addressing as well problems being faced in ongoing combat operations, but, as Holmes said, they amount to a “bunch of Rube Goldberg gateways.” For the longer-term, the Air Force wants holistic communication and data sharing.
The Air Force’s Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan, completed in the spring of 2016, outlined current and future threats to readiness. As directed under the plan, USAF is conducting an Advanced Battle Management System analysis of alternatives due to be completed in 2018. It will include the next generation of networks and radios. In addition, the plan calls for a development effort focused on agile communications, including adaptable networks for operations in “highly contested” environments.
“The agile communication capabilities-based assessment is defining communication gaps that the Air Force must mitigate in (anti-access/area-denial) environments in the 2030-plus time frame,” Harris told lawmakers. “The outcome of each of these efforts will inform the path forward for communications capabilities that enable interoperability across the A2/AD environment.”