Page 104 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

“It does a very good job in terms of electronic warfare as well.

“Bottom line, I was out there, I saw four ship of F-35s, and the scenario was a double digit SAM threat, it was
1,000 foot overcast, we had four Bs out there, we had a forward air controller on the ground, and these guys
had launched off the ship and they were overhead, and they were going to go take out ground vehicles and
suppress and shutdown the SAM.

“We brought in all of our senior one and two star generals. In short period of time, the F-35s got rid of the
SAMs.

“They were operating more like a pack of dogs than ever seen in 36 years of flying strike airplanes including
being the CO of the Weapons School.

“It was a work of art.

“The infantry officer came at the end came up says, “Hey, that was fantastic, but I think that’s not very
realistic.”

“We need to capture it on live streaming video see we can see a confirmation of those targets.”

“I commented: Well it’s overcast, they’re not going to be streaming video, and you’re probably not going to
have a Reaper out there, right? It’s going to get shot down.”

“He goes, “We need more time so we can review the video feeds.”
“I said, we have to remove the admirals and the generals out of the kill chain.

“If the pilots have got the right RoE, let them loose.

“If you inject too many decision makers from on high, you’re going to get Solders, Sailors and Airmen killed.”

Davis added: “We’re going to grow the F-35; We’re going to be very aggressive about growing capabilities
in the F-35. It’s good at what it does right now; it’ll be a hell of a lot better in the future.”

He then went on to describe other roll-outs of evolving EW capability for the MAGTF.
The Blackjack UAV, which has a modular payload structure, has an EW payload inside as well and is currently
working with the USS America amphibious group.

The goal is clear: “There will never be a Marine infantry unit or a group on the ground that will not have
access to electronic warfare capability.

“The guys on ground can go up and e-connect.
“Almost like they’re going to a server in the sky and pulling the information for them, he or she can basically
pull the capability down from the air asset.”

The next platform, which will provide an EW delivery capability to the MAGTF will be the Group 5 UAV, the
Marines are working on right now.

This will be a VTOL UAV and will have an open architecture with modular payloads.
And clearly one of those payloads will be an EW one. And by having a VTOL asset this can provide MAGTF
support throughout its operational cycle, whether on the ship, coming off the ship or operating ashore.
Second Line of Defense

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