RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – U.S. Army missile defense assets, Dutch F-35 stealth fighters, and joint command and control systems recently destroyed enemy drones and knocked out cruise missile attacks during an international collaborative exercise. Kris Osborn at The National Interest reports. The National Interest reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
18 March 2021 -- That war game was intended to evaluate the kinds of weapons and networking technologies necessary to ensure base defense. As part of the exercise, a Dutch F-35 operated as an aerial sensor node connecting targeting data to ground control centers and the 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command.
When addressing the merits of the JADC2 combat preparation training, Air Force Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, Commander of U.S. Forces in Europe and Africa, cited the need to connect platforms across domains as sensor nodes in an integrated combat mesh that involved ground-based air defenses, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and fixed wing surveillance and attack aircraft.
Targets approaching from beyond the horizon, for instance, could be apprehended by satellites or even F-35 jet fighters functioning as aerial sensor relay nodes. This scenario might call for ground-to-air or air-to-air missiles at safe standoff distances.
Related: Air Force eyes embedded computing and sensors to enhance networking for command and control
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
