Page 27 - Tron Warfare.pages

The F-35 is also designed with inherent survivability factors, redundancy and harden-
ing and stealth. Stealth is usually seen as the 5th Gen improvement.

But reducing the F-35 to a linear x-y axis improvement simply misses the point.

The F-35 is now going to take technology into a revolutionary three-dimensional situa-
tional awareness capability. This capability establishes a new vector for TacAir aircraft
design.

This can be measured on a “Z” axis.

Historically, Command and Control (C&C) was external to 1,2,3, 4th and some 5th Gen-
erations of TacAir. Now known as C5ISR the goal was still enhancing fleet wide com-
bat performance for all Type/Model/Series (T/M/S) of TacAir.

This is the current modern AWACS (hub and spoke) battle management concept. But by
using a three-dimensional graph, one can understand that the “Z-axis” takes airpower
into a totally different domain.

The shift is from externally provided C5ISR into C5ISR-D for decision into the cockpit.
This is the revolutionary step function that breaks the linear progression of previous
Generations. The “Z” axis in which the F-35 is the prototype is the first fusion technolo-
gy with 360 awareness “D” (for decision) cockpit.

A design focus of F-35 is the cockpit, and helmet displays of trusted fused integrated
systems.

Enabled with that technology the pilot can also be a distributed information decision-
maker.

This is the Z axis in action and the enabler is the trusted “fusion engine.

Second Line of Defense December 2014

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