Why does the F-35 have such superb situational awareness? That question could be answered in a number of ways, including it being classified, so “if you knew, then I would have to kill you.” The F-35 is no normal aircraft; it is “the” aircraft the US developed for its Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and allies. Much is said about the program’s massive cost, but that’s also because of the massive shoes it is designed to fill.
As the think tank RUSI’s Justin Bronk states, no country in Europe (including Russia) can come remotely close to matching the enormous and sustained investment that the US pours into its fighter jets. The US doesn’t just develop a fighter jet; it continues to channel billions into continuously developing and improving that platform over its lifetime. While European aircraft like the Eurofighter are excellent platforms, the money just isn’t there in the same way it is for the F-35. The F-35 even excels in areas where it isn’t well-marketed. For example, the Finnish Air Force found it was better suited to its dispersed operations requirements than the Gripen E.
Outperforms 4th Gen Fighters + AWACS/EW Aircraft
When considering bids for their next-generation fighter jets, Finland, Switzerland, and Canada all came to the same conclusion: the F-35 is the only aircraft in its category. All of these countries currently use legacy F/A-18 Hornets. In 2021, Finland announced the F-35A as the winner of its HX fighter program. During the bidding process, Finland considered the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Aviation Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Saab Gripen E.
The main fighter jets considered by Canada were the Super Hornet, the Gripen E, and the F-35A. While the F-35A competed on its own, the Super Hornet was paired with the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, and the Gripen E was paired with the GlobalEye AWACS aircraft. The F-35A outperformed both. According to a report by CBC, a report was leaked by Radio-Canada that shows the F-35A trounced the Gripen E earning a “near perfect” score of 95% vs. the Gripen’s 33%.
The situational awareness of the F-35 is such that it can greatly increase the effectiveness of 4th-generation fighter jets by providing excellent situational awareness. The F-35 is designed to penetrate enemy air defense and suppress and destroy enemy air defense. In the RAF, the Eurofighter Typhoon is known as the thug, while the F-35B is known as the assassin.
The AN/APG-81 AESA Radar
The F-35 was designed from the ground up for situational awareness. It is intended to ensure the pilot understands everything happening in the battlespace without overwhelming them with raw data. Its sensors are constantly collecting raw information from every direction, which is then processed by the onboard computers into a single, clean, easy-to-use picture.
The F-35 boasts a “god’s-eye view” of the battlespace. One cornerstone of the F-35’s sensor suite is the AN/APG-81 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array). The radar uses thousands of tiny solid-state transmit/receive modules. It can rapidly scan large areas and track many targets simultaneously.
|
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II |
|
|---|---|
|
Number delivered |
1,200+ |
|
Variants |
F-35A, F-35B, F-35C |
|
Main customers |
US Air Force, US Marines, US Navy |
|
Primary contractors |
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems |
Northrop Grumman (which is a major contractor to the F-35) says the AN/APG-81 AESA “is the latest and most capable AESA in the world.” Northrop also said that it has long-range active and passive air-to-air and air-to-ground modes that support a full range of air-to-air and air-to-surface missions, “complemented by stealth features along with significant electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance functions.”
Explained: The 6 Generations Of Fighter Jets
There are six generally accepted generations of fighter jets, with each leap frogging the previous generation.
Other Attributes Of The F-35’s Sensor Suite
Another component of the F-35 sensor suite includes its Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS), which is built into the aircraft’s fuselage and provides infrared search and track. It also provides laser designation for its munitions and long-range imaging. Then there’s the aircraft’s Distributed Aperture System (DAS), made up of six infrared sensors providing 360-degree coverage. They enable the aircraft to automatically detect missiles, aircraft, and launches.
The F-35 also comes with advanced passive sensing. This enabled the fighter jet to detect enemy radars and other signatures from far away. Being passive means the aircraft doesn’t need to reveal its own position. By contrast, other aircraft, like Russia’s Flanker family, use older PESA technology radars. These act as beacons, both illuminating potential threats while also illuminating the Flanker to other aircraft.
As stated, the F-35 is also excellent at electronic warfare. It’s AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare suite helps the aircraft with threat detection as well as jamming, self-protection, and geolocation. Communication is key to modern systems, and the F-35’s MADL (Multifunction Advanced Dataline) and Link-16 enable it to securely communicate with other stealth aircraft as well as 4th-gen fighters, ships, and air defense systems (including allied fighters through Link-16).
The F-35’s Advanced Sensor Fusion
Some aviation enthusiasts talk of Russian fighter jets to supercruise or perform super maneuvers like the Cobra Maneuver pioneered by Sweden. But this is of secondary importance to modern fighter jets. It is better to think of the most advanced fighter jets as ninja super-sensing supercomputers. One area of the F-35’s strength lies in its computing power.
The current Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) upgrades have been in the news for all the wrong reasons, but they are significantly increasing the fighter jet’s computing power. The F-35 gathers enormous amounts of data, but instead of just dumping it on the pilot, the F-35’s computers combine all the data in a single track file, identify and classify objects automatically, prioritize threats, and remove duplicates.
Not only that, but the computers also work to only display what the pilot needs to know. For the pilot, this translates into simple, reliable symbols, dramatically reducing the pilot’s workload and enabling the pilot to make faster and safer decisions. Advanced fighter jets like the F-35 and F-22 are designed to be as easy to fly as possible, not so that pilots can be lazy, but so that they can concentrate on making decisions and fighting the battle at hand.
Which Country Has The Most Superior Military Jets In The World?
Discover why the US leads global air power with over 13,000 aircraft, cutting-edge fighters like the F-35, and sixth-gen tech like NGAD and B-21.
The F-35 Is A Quarterback
The F-35 is sometimes likened to a “quarterback” owing to its ability to act as the central command and data hub in modern air combat. It can lead 4th-generation fighter jets, drones, and other forces while processing vast amounts of information. It can gather and disseminate information to other platforms, from fighter jets to warships, allowing them to achieve mission success.
This is something that is frequently missed in discussions about the F-35 vs a 4th-generation fighter. First, the F-35 is in a league of its own, and second, it can act as a force multiplier. Smaller air forces like Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland can only afford to have one type of fighter jet. However, larger air forces like the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, and Italy mix F-35s with 4th-generation fighters.
These countries can make their 4th-generation fighter jets much more effective by using the F-35 as a force multiplier. As a stealth fighter, it can act as a forward sensor node for legacy fighters like the F-15, F-16, Eurofighter, and Rafale. It is able to be both a fighter jet in its own right and a networked intelligence platform. F-35.com states, “By acting as the central intelligence hub, the F-35 processes vast amounts of battlefield data in real time, distributing critical information to pilots, ground forces and allied platforms.”
The F-35 Is Considered The Most Advanced In The World
The F-35 is regarded as the most advanced fighter jet in the world. The aircraft is not even considered mature, with Lockheed Martin still improving it and working to realize its full potential. The F-35 is set to develop even more as a ‘quarterback’ as next-generation loyal-wingman drones are developed. Lockheed says, “In this new era, the F-35 acts as the quarterback, leading uncrewed systems ahead of the mission, orchestrating the operation with unmatched situational awareness.”
While the F-22 Raptor is considered the best air-dominance fighter jet, it is also highly specialized in that role and not well-suited to other missions, though it can perform them. By contrast, the F-35 was built as a multirole fighter jet with emphasis on SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) and DEAD (Destruction of Enemy Air Defense). It can penetrate air defense networks, kick in the door, and allow 4th-generation aircraft to exploit the gap.
As stated, much of the F-35’s capabilities remain classified and cannot be modeled on platforms like War Thunder. One must be in the cockpit to see its capabilities. Whenever the F-35 has competed with other fighter jets (Gripen, Super Hornet, F-15, Rafale, Eurofighter), it has won hands down. One of the main reasons why countries with a requirement for an advanced fighter jet still buy those jets is geopolitics. This includes protecting domestic industry (e.g., France, Sweden), being banned from buying the F-35 (e.g., Turkey, Thailand), and uneasiness with tying the country’s security to the US for decades (e.g., the ongoing debates in Canada and Spain).
