Capability Carries Significant Impact for Multi-Domain Operations

At the Space and Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium on 6 August, Lockheed Martin announced recent demonstrations of the F-35’s interoperability with US ballistic missile defence systems, reports MON US correspondent, Marty Kauchak, from Huntsville.

In June, live track data was sent from an F-35 LIGHTNING II to the US Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), delivered by Northrop Grumman, during the Orange Flag Evaluation 19-2 at Palmdale, CA and Fort Bliss, TX. During the live demonstration, track data was routed to the IBCS through the F-35 ground station and the F-35-IBCS adaptation kit, both of which have been developed by Lockheed Martin.

This newly-announced capability for the F-35 carries significant impact for multi-domain operations, since it allows the aircraft to detect threats that are difficult for ground-based sensors alone to pick up.

Additionally, Lockheed Martin announced the recent delivery of the first radar panel for the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) programme. MON reported on this development in greater detail earlier today – see the story headlined “LRDR Achieves Major Milestones.”

Marty Kauchak