You may not have heard the news that the F-35B, the Marine Corps variant of the next generation fighter which was put on 2 year probation by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, is very near coming off that probation. And you may also not have heard that the Marines are very bullish on the aircraft. Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Joseph Dunford, speaking at a conference said they were “pretty bullish” about the fighter. He said that there had been solid progress in fixing the technical problems the plane faced and that the fighter had made 98% of its test points for the year. “It's no longer ... in the cross hairs." The F-35B STOVL aircraft is the future of Marine Corps aviation. It gives the Corps an unparalleled capability to use their amphibious assault ships as launch platforms for strike aircraft. First validated by the AV8B, the F-35B improves dramatically upon that capability. General Dunford says it is a capability the future Marine Corps cannot do without. One of the test pilots who has been working on the F-35B and the new helmet for the fighter, gave some insight into the improvement in capability the F-35B brings to the Corps and future battles. Situational awareness is a critical factor for fighter pilot survivability: You don’t need night vision goggles; it’s all built into the helmet. So, depending on the conditions — the light levels, environmental factors, and cultural lighting — you may choose to use the night camera or your DAS system, depending on what gives you the best situational awareness. […] The night vision goggle — the Legacy Night Vision Goggle is just a sensor. It doesn’t provide you with an integrated picture. The F-35 night camera as it’s projected in the helmet is really more like using your own vision, rather than looking through a narrow sensor, or soda straw, so to speak. And that means vastly improved situational awareness. Then there’s information sharing which again, improves situational awareness but also effectiveness and efficiency: With the F35, if my wingmen finds a target on the ground, he can data-link that information to me and now my helmet will tell me where to look on the ground to find that target and I know we are looking at the same target EXACTLY. […] It’s shared information and the helmet will tell the pilot where to employ sensors and weapons while providing threat information. You get more awareness, throughout your flight, on friendly and enemy positions. So you have shared situational awareness across the board to understand who are the friendlies, the hostiles, what the order of battle is, and what the current situation on the ground is real time. What does that mean in the bigger picture?
ased on the information you and your wingmen obtain, you can make timely decisions more effectively as a team, and rapidly pass that information to the ground without relying on other assets. As you add the F-35, you are going to reshape other capabilities on the battlefield as well, and provide the foundation for managing battlefield assets, UAVs, intelligence, and other tactical information. The F-35 will change the way we think about the role of tactical aviation. Pretty strong statements but certainly true with the capabilities described. They far outshine what our legacy aircraft can now do. In fact: Whether it’s friendly or hostile, and then having the aircraft, through the helmet, alert the pilot to what action he needs to take in a particular scenario, to either avoid or defeat that threat and then perform the mission. In a legacy aircraft, depending on what that threat is, you may have to abort your mission. You wouldn’t have the real time situational awareness of all the threats, so there could be confusion about whether I can still perform my mission, how safe is it to continue. I will have to abort missions in a legacy aircraft that I will continue in an F-35. That is a critical difference that can mean everything in combat. The F-35, all variants, will provide those capabilities to our next generation of war fighters. For the Marine Corps specifically, there are the added benefits of the quick turn around of strike aircraft as they operate off large deck amphibious assault ships and temporary airbases established on the ground close to the supported troops. Experience in OEF, OIF and Libya showed that this capability allowed Marine air to double its sortie rate in comparison to the other services. It brings a cost benefit as well. Libya proved that even when an aircraft carrier isn’t available, amphibious assault ships carrying STVOL aircraft can provide a first strike capability quickly and efficiently and at much less of a cost than moving a carrier battle group into the area. “In an era of shrinking budgets, the addition of the F-35B to the naval aviation arsenal will effectively double the number of available aircraft carriers. […] The large-deck amphibious assault ships essentially become small carriers with the F-35B embarked.” For those who fight our battles and who understand the capabilities needed for future combat, the F-35B is the weapon of choice: By getting the JSF on the decks of the Marines fleet of amphibious ships, those forces can take "the next step to respond" to any kind of combat scenario "across the full spectrum of operations," Rear Adm. Kevin Scott, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Two, said. With the jet, Scott said he could push his forces farther and respond faster than he could with the current fleet of attack jets and helicopters at his disposal. Scott wouldn't speculate on what would happen if the F-35B did not make it into the arsenal. The one-star simply said he and his troops would do the job they were assigned with whatever assets they've got. But he said the F-35B would make his job, and that of his fellow combat commanders, a lot easier. It isn’t difficult at all to speculate...
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Posted
Dec 08 2011, 02:10 AM
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BLACKFIVE