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Offloading of weapons will be a fundamental opportunity posed by the 5th generation
aircraft.

The former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Schwartz spoke prior to his depar-
ture of F-22s training to guide Tomahawk missiles off of surface ships to their targets.

Our testing last year of an F22 in-flight, retargeting a tomahawk cruise missile that was
launched from a U.S. Navy submarine, is an example of how we are moving closer to this joint
pre-integration under our Air-Sea Battle concept.

The F-35 has a 360-degree situational awareness and data delivery capability.

This poses the possibility of leveraging the 360-degree space to guide weapons to their
targets.

Target acquisition onboard does not have to be married to weapons CARRIED on
board.

This means as well that classic distinctions between tactical fighters doing close air sup-
port, or air superiority missions or air defense missions are clearly blurred.

The fleet flies and identifies targets for the various mission sets and can guide weapons
to a diversity of target sets.

The reach of the fleet is the key to the operation of the fleet, not the range of individual
aircraft.

Shaping a new distributed operational capability when added to the coming revolution
in speed will provide the US with a range of options to deal with global threats, includ-
ing any presumed advantages of the Chinese area denial strategy.

Conclusions: Laying a Foundation for Crafting a 21st Cen-
tury Air Combat Approach

The F-35, Lightning II, has a revolutionary sensor fusion cockpit that makes it effective
in AA, AG and EW, consequently, US and Allied Combat pilots will evolve and share

Second Line of Defense December 2014

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