Here’s What It’s Like to Fly the F-35

Popular Warrior Maven Story Republished for Viewer Interest

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The F-35 is equipped with a 25mm gun, and can fly with a 5th-Generation stealth formation. It also has new air-to-air, surface, and air-to-air weapons. However, its most distinctive feature may be the often-quoted “The F-35”. “sensor fusion.”

This awareness was apparent in an interview I recently conducted with three F-35 pilots. Chris Lockheed Martin F-35 Pilot Test Pilot Chris “Worm” Spinelli, who was a 24 year veteran of the Air Force, explained to me that aircraft is defined by “data integration.”

F-35 Data Integration

“For me, the biggest difference I’ve seen between flying the fourth-generation F-16, which is what I previously flew, and my few hours in the F-35 is its data integration and data management capabilities. It allows extreme situational awareness­–more than any other platform that we’ve generated, at least that I’ve flown,” Spinelli said.

These technological benefits are certain to have many advantages, but they are not obvious. “sensor fusion” Also, the F-35’s introduce interesting tactical dynamics that might be easily overlooked. The F-35’s turn pilots into “true tacticians.” Tony “Brick” Wilson, now Chief of Fighter Flight Operations (F-35 test pilot), tells me this in an F-35 pilot interview.

“Applying the system of sensor fusion reduces pilot workload and allows the pilots to have a situational “bubble” They’re not just pilots, they’re also sensor managers. They are true tacticians. The fact that the pilot has the spare capacity increases survivability and makes them more lethal,” Wilson said.

Fighter jets are aligned with a variety of variables, including altitude, navigational trajectory and speed. They also need to gather and process sensitive data and information about weapons. 

F-35s You are equipped with the next-generation EW weapons, an upgraded air-to–air attack missile, long-range targeting sensors and mission data files. “identification;” Sensor Fusion “declutters” All of this Monessa “Siren” Balzhiser, Lockheed Martin F-35 Production and Training PIlot, said me in the interview.

“The great thing about [the display] is you can control what you see and what you don’t. You can declutter and put everything on it that you need, so you’re seeing an advanced picture of friendlies, air-to-air and air-to-ground stats, and navigation points. It’s all encompassed in one display, which is why I say it becomes a matter of how well a pilot can process all that data, because it’s a lot of data and it’s always dynamic. It’s always giving you real-time information from every single sensor in the jet,” Balzhiser said.

F-35 Advanced Electronically Scanned Antenna 

It is important to destroy an enemy when you are trying to defeat them. F-35 Advanced Electronically Scanned Aspect can see a threat item, a long range infrared targeting sensor may produce a rendering, and an onboard threat database can positively identify the target. Precision-guided weapons can then strike.

This is the end of this process. “decision,” or the point where pilots must react quickly and decisively.

“When I first got into the F-35 and even still today, the biggest, game-changing difference that I’ve seen specifically for the person in the cockpit, the “decision-maker,” the pilot, is the F-35’s fusion and integration of all of the different sensors from the aircraft. It creates an amazing holistic picture. This was never, never seen before on any fourth-generation platform,” Spinelli said.

Advanced computing is ultimately the result of the fusion process. While serving in the Air Force, a former Chief Scientist explained to me that F-35s sensor-fusion was actually an early version of AI. Many procedural analysis tasks can now be done without human intervention thanks to advanced computer algorithms. 

This does more than just ease the so-described “cognitive burden” To free the pilots for more important tasks that require human cognition, it was placed on them. It also compares different pools of data to each other to make conclusions.

F-35AI

This is how AI enabled systems work. It means that large amounts of incoming or collected sensor data can be bounced off or analyzed in relation vast or seemingly limitless quantities of information in seconds to solve issues, draw concussions, and organize a host of variables in terms how they fit together or integrate with one another. 

Speed and altitude can have an impact on navigation and weapon targeting. Threat data can help determine the closing speed of a threat or guide decisions about the best weapon for that particular threat. AI-enabled computing has the ability to perform many of these functions automatically, largely based on comparing variables to existing information and precedents. This allows for recommendations to human decision-makers.

“It’s super, super, super easy to fly. It’s made easy to fly for a reason, because of all the management you have to do in the cockpit,” Wilson said it to me. 

F-35 v F/A-18, F-16, F-15EX

There is a lot of discussion, criticism and debate going on around the topic. F-35 Many might wonder how different it is when it comes to long-term maintenance, operational and sustainment costs, and logistical complexities. F-35 From an advanced, upgraded 4th Generation fighter, like an F/A-18 F-16 You can even have the entire thing massively reworked F-15EX.

Are the F-35 margins for difference and superiority sufficient to justify long-term cost concerns?

You can find more information here F-35s When an F-35 gets built, the costs fall and the F-35’s ability to perform missions that require many of its 4th-generation jets seem to present a different financial picture to critics.

The Pentagon and Lockheed are clearly working together to reduce costs. Lockheed and Air Force have been reducing production costs to make it cheaper to fly missions that require many 4th-gen fighters.

What about an examination that is purely based on performance? How much more do you get from an examination based purely on performance? F-35?

Why not ask the people in the know? Three F-35 pilots with years of experience in both the 4th Generation and F-35 aircraft flew for me. Each pilot offered unique insights into the differences in operating an F-35 during war situations.

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The pilots’ comments aligned along several key themes to include sensing, data fusion, maneuverability and mission intelligence data, among other things.

F-35 Beyond Line-of-Sight

It would be hard to overlook the F-35’s unique ability to see, destroy and attack at ranges beyond your line of sight undetectable to other F-35 pilots. Monessa “Siren” BalzhiserLockheed Martin was the F-35 Production Pilot and Training Pilot. I spoke to him in an interview.

“The F-35 has a magnificent radar that allows you to shoot beyond visual range before any enemy would even detect you. So that’s a huge advantage with the fifth-generation fighter,” She stated. Balzhiser described it as “a” “first-shot, first-kill” advantage.

The F-35 can also attack outside of line-of-sight. However, the sensors provide new types of positioning data.

F-35 Tactical Air Advantage

Chris, F-35 pilot test “Worm” Spinelli was a fighter pilot for 24 years during his time in the Air Force. F-22 Lockheed joined the F-16, and F-16. He said that F-35 technology allows pilots to see where they are relative to an enemy in the air. This is what determines whether or not they survive in air-to-air battles.

“In an air-to-air engagement, with a fourth-generation fighter, you’re firing and then maneuvering to help survive a follow-up attack from the enemy aircraft and I can tell you personally, from my own experiences of fighting in the Raptor F-22 and in the F-16, it was very frustrating trying to see. Quite honestly, you never even see [the enemy aircraft], or know what’s going on,” Spinelli said.

Spinelli stated that the F-35 produces a completely different kind of energy. “Tactical Air” picture “mental model” Pilots in air warfare need to know the environment.

“In a fourth-generation fighter, you have to mentally build that model and then try to make decisions. Of course, that can be challenging depending on how dense the threat environment is regarding both air and ground threats or other threats that may be out there. This is in contrast to an F-35, where you’re seeing a much larger picture, informed by offshore sources as well, and you’re seeing it from your own platform,” Spinelli said.

Winning in the air is still, to a large extent, correctly described by the famous former fighter pilot Col. John Boyd’s “OODA Loop” terminology. Through “Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action,” Pilots who are able to complete the decision “loop” cycle faster than an adversary … destroy their enemies in the air. F-35’s superiority is characterized by the ability to speed up, streamline and exponentially improve the OODA Loop process.

Spinelli’s F-35 piloting experience, which of course draws upon the sensor data processing speed and data fusion of the aircraft, entirely aligns in concept with Boyd’s OODA Loop.

“You are only as good as the knowledge and information you have, so that to me is one of the big differences. The F-35 enables decision-making that allows you to make hopefully the correct or appropriate tactical decision as the situation dictates…. and then be able to execute it in the timeline that allows the best probability for your attack to succeed versus the enemy’s attack,” Spinelli told me.

F-35 Sensor Fusing

This knowledge is called “Tactical Air” Picture, as Spinelli describes, is brought to life by the much-discussed technological synergy. “fusing” In an F-35.

“Sensor fusion,” It organizes disparate, seemingly unrelated information into a single screen that the pilot can see. Essentially, pilots don’t have to look at, analyze and compare different sensor systems to get an integrated picture, the aircraft’s computer It does.

“When you look at the radar for the F-35, the electronic warfare (EW) system and then of course the Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) combining it all together, that to me was the biggest difference between the F-35 and the legacy F-16s or F-18s,” Spinelli said.

It is interesting that all data fusion reduces the noise in the cockpit. This allows pilots more time to focus on the most pressing matters.

Tony “Brick” Wilson, an ex-Navy officer F/A-18 Pilot who also flew the carrier-launched F-35C is well-equipped to compare 4th and 5th generation aircraft.

F-35 Cockpit Communications & Sensor Fusion

“One of the biggest differences that jumps out is how quiet it is in the cockpit. Depending on what the threats are, a lot of the errors that may be made while airborne are predominantly due to misheard comms, either not hearing a crucial piece of information or missing a crucial piece of information,” Wilson, now Chief of Fighter Flight Operations at Lockheed Martin (F-35 Test Pilot), spoke to me.

Wilson explained that part of the reduction in distraction and noise is due to how individual systems are organized and streamlined in a collaborative or integrated manner.

“In the F-35, we carry all of our sensor suites all the time. Couple that with sensor fusion and you have the opportunity to listen to some of the engagements, but it’s still very quiet because that sensor fusion is presenting the information to the pilot in such a manner that a lot of comms is not needed,” Wilson stated.

Although it is difficult to simplify, the ability to see, destroy and locate enemy targets without them being destroyed or seen determines your chances of survival in air combat. Given this simple equation, all three pilots seemed to agree that perhaps the greatest advantage of the F-35 is in fact … “sensor fusion.”

Video Above: Comparing U.S. 5th Generation Fighter Jets, F-35 & F-22 to China’s Fighter Jets, Including the J-20

“The biggest difference between fourth-generation fighters for me was with the fourth generation, I was always managing all the different systems, from electronic warfare to the weapons to the radar to any kind of targeting pod, any kind of sensor I had. I was 100% focused on making sure they were all integrated within my own cockpit in the fourth generation…..Whereas what I’ve seen in the F-35 is that it’s all done for you,” She told me.

— Kris Osborn The President of Warrior Maven The Defense Editor of The National Interest ––

Kris Osborn is defense editor for The National Interest and president of Warrior Maven-the Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn was also an anchor and on-air specialist in military affairs at national TV networks. Osborn has been a guest military expert for Fox News, MSNBC and The Military Channel. He holds a Masters in Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

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