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SLD: You will also have the opportunity from the standpoint of 2030 to take advantage of under-
standing what the impact of the F-35 will be on the fleet.

Rear Admiral Moran: Absolutely. That is a good point.

Joint strike fighter in my view is a revolutionary change to how we’re going to operate.

And we will evolve joint strike fighter once we get it in our hands and we learn to operate with
it, and we truly understand its full potential. Once we get it out there and we start operating,
we’re going to find out that we’re going to want to evolve this capability.

And the F-35 may be its own successor.

Or as General Hostage, then head of the ACC put it:

Hostage: The fifth generation aircraft will enable the air combat cloud and allow me to use my
legacy assets differently.

Many of my 4th Generation fighters can be used to extend the network of linked systems provid-
ing reinforcing fires, and I can focus on the fifth generation assets as the core nodes shaping dis-
tributed joint capabilities.

And when we come to the evolution of “next” generation systems, the form factor could stay
quite similar as we evolve the capabilities within the planes or in terms of how the flying systems
can interact and operate together.

Rather than thinking of 6th generation aircraft in form factor terms, we can operate the new air
combat cloud and leverage that moving forward.

The 21st USAF Secretary Mike Wynne and former head of DOD Acquisition at the time
when the F-35 moved down a path to build out its fusion engine capabilities should
have the last word:

The speed of transition for the US and allied forces is very dependent on the resources to both
produce the F-35 and then for the subsequent training.

It is encouraging to see this as a top priority for all of the US and allied forces.

Second Line of Defense December 2014

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