The F-35: Getting On With It

Cultural Change You Can Believe InDr. Robbin F. Laird

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Overview

• The F-35 and its ability to work with, to leverage and to enhance the capability of the power projection forces is at the heart of the next 20 years of rebuilding U.S. and allied forces.

• It is really a “flying combat system”, rather than a tactical aircraft, which allows the US and its allies to look at power projection in a very different way.

• And it allows the U.S. and its allies to get best value out of their forces.

• But the F-35 is a centerpiece of disruptive change.• If the culture of thinking about combat does not change, and

one thinks of this as the next iteration of what the services will have for combat aircraft, the entire revolution will be missed.

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The Baseline Aircraft: 9 Core Capabilities Built-In

• A new cockpit and helmet which enable the pilot to function as a tactical decision maker;

• A fusion engine which brings together and integrates the core combat systems on the F-35;

• The fusion engines of the F-35 fleet are designed to share information across the combat enterprise, or put in other terms each plane is synergy enabled;

• The plane is built as a weapon system built on a foundational architecture of chip and software upgradeability;

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The Baseline Aircraft (2)• The software is built to shape a manageable workload for the pilot;• Stealth is built into the aircraft and is a core enabler for the entire

aircraft;• As a flying combat system, the F-35’s advanced agility is a key enabler

of combat operations;• The power plant of the F-35 enables a long term growth strategy for

the fusion engine. Unlike unmanned aircraft, where the power plant is devoted to flying the aircraft resulting in less than optimal sensor and weapons loading, the F-35 has significant growth possibilities;

• The F-35 can fire a full gamut of legacy weapons but lays the foundation for the next generation of weapons as well.

• http://www.sldinfo.com/the-baseline-f-35/• In short, it is built for the I Pad Generation Pilots

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The Z Axis for Combat Aircraft

Z Axis: Migration from externally provided C3I to C4ISR-D in the cockpit carried by the individual air platform.

Z: C4ISR-D “OODA” Loop

Y: Performance

X Axis: Time

Generations of Combat Aircraft Clustering Over Time(1,2,3,4,5….)As Measured by Range, Payload (improved by system/and weapons carried), Maneuverability (measured by P Sub s), Useful speed, and Range

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C-5 ISR/D (Decision) Cockpit

Electrical Optical Targeting System

(EOTS)

Distributed Aperature

System (DAS)

Electronic Warfare System

AESA Radar

Communications, Navigation and Identification System (CNI)

Off Load to Other Platforms

Off Load to Other Platforms

FusionEngine

F-35 Z-Axis Fusion

• F-35 Individual Pilots Internal to Their Cockpit Will Have the Best Real Time Data Base of Knowledge in History

• Each F-35 Will Be Able To Network and Direct Engagements in 360-Degrees of 3-Dimensional Space by Off Loading Tracks to Other Air/Land/Sea/Space Platforms – Including UAVs and Robots

• Fusion Engine Can Drive Unity of Purpose in Focusing World Wide IR&D and R&D on Enhancing C5ISR-D Cockpit Because Each Discreet System Can Be Improved Independently

6

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Fleet Wide Impacts

• “No Platform Fights Alone”• Built from the Bottom Up to be a 21st Century Aircraft

– Fleet-Wide Logistics– Global Transparency

• Distributed Operations– Wolfpack Approach Enabled– Leverage the Old to Support the New

• Pull Function• Retire the OLD (Move on from AWACs, etc.) to Pay for the

New if that is Required• If you did not have an F-35, you would have to invent it

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F-35 Growth Path

F-35 Fleet Operating Globally and with Global Sustainment Provides Capabilities for Both Strategic and Tactical Operations for both the US and its Allies

Capabilities of the Individual Aircraft

Platforms are Upgraded Over

Time Enabled by An Upgradeable

System Architecture

Growth is Driven by both Platform Evolution and Evolving Distributed Fleet Operations

Distributed Fleet Operations

Fusion Engine Development

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Culture Change• Not a Generational but an Epochal Change• Preparing for Tron Warfare• “Aegis is My Wingman”• The F-35 Fleet is a Core Missile Defense Asset• And a Central Player in Dealing with Hypersonics• Logistical Revolution at the Center of Enhanced Combat

Capabilities• A New Approach to Combat Learning• A New Approach to Training• http

://www.defensenews.com/article/20110221/DEFFEAT05/102210314/Embrace-Air-Power-Revolution

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Glimpses of the Future

• Northern Edge• Bold Alligator 2012• Libyan Operations

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BA-12 and F-35 Combat Systems• The BAC1-11 aircraft carrying the F-35 combat systems and see many

capabilities coming soon to the ESG;• What I saw on the BAC1-11, I have exponentially greater ability to

scan and “see” the battlespace with exponentially greater fidelity than ever before, locating and positively identifying everything from air to sea targets. I can look at the battlespace with the radar, the DAS, a host of other sensors and basically can bring all that information together into one data system, fuse that information — which makes it a flying sensor. (General “Dog” Davis, CG, 2nd MAW).

• http://www.sldinfo.com/special-report-bold-alligator-2012-and-the-future-of-the-expeditionary-strike-group/

• http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120415/DEFFEAT05/304150007/Shaping-Battlespace Second Line of Defense

F-35 Bravo Aboard the USS Wasp, October 2011The F-35 community of users – sea based and land based — will be able to create a pretty tight air grid over the top of the distributed battle space so we can share information very freely out there.

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Facilitates Shift in Power Projection Approach

• Aggregative: Signaling, American led, phases where more capability is aggregated and stacked up; linear approach

• Scalable: Presence, Honeycombed, U.S. role can be flexible, Allies are forward deployed, multi-directional versus linear.

• The first requires significantly greater numbers of platforms, is unaffordable in today’s conditions, and requires an American leadership role out of sync with the evolving global situation.

• And the core competitor – the PRC – is shaping its power projection forces around the linear approach. Countering Chinese presence and strategy in Asia is best down with a presence, economy of scale and a reach back strategy.

• The second leverages U.S. and allied technologies, is affordable under today’s conditions, and allows for a variable U.S. leadership role in sync with the evolving global situation.

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Shift in Power Projection (2)

• http://www.sldinfo.com/special-report-on-crafting-a-new-pacific-strategy/

• Forthcoming: Joint Forces Quarterly: The F-35 and the Future of Power Projection (Laird and Timperlake)

• The Long Reach of Aegis (Proceedings, January 2012, http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-01/long-reach-aegis

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Re-Shaping Pacific Power Projection

PresenceEconomy of

ForceScalability

Leve

ragi

ng th

e F-

35 Fl

eet

Hubs, Seabases, and Basing

Allies are Always Forward Deployed

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Inside the Beltway Games

• The Boomer Column• Platform Centric; Stove Piping• The 57 Year Aircraft• Test and Build the Bureaucracy Rather Than Build the Aircraft• Concurrency Games• Keep the Old Because We are Leading From Behind• We are Poor• Ignore those MANUFACTURED aircraft flying over your heads• Ignoring the Osprey

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Conclusions

• You Can Fight With Horses if You Want Too; I am Taking Tanks, Airplanes and a New Warfighting Approach

• Options are Inherent in the Technologies; But if You Want to Stay in the Platonic Cave So Be It

• A Nike Defense Policy• Don’t Study the Supply Chain: Manufacture the Aircraft• Embrace Culture Change• Use the Pacific Opportunity as a Reshaping Force for the Future

– Allies are Always Forward Deployed– How can WE plug in?– How can the U.S. Enable and Surge?

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For More Information (1)

• Second Line of Defense http://www.sldinfo.com

• Second Line of Defense Forum http://www.sldforum.com

• AOL Defense http://defense.aol.com/