F-35 taking on its critics

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Australia’s first two F-35A ‘Lightning II’ aircraft arrive in Australia to take part in the Avalon Air Show

Following a triumphant presence at the Avalon Air Show early-March, Australia’s first two F-35A Lightning II aircraft stopped off at RAAF Base Amberley before returning to the United States to continue training Air Force pilots to fly the RAAF’s fighter of the future.

While a decision on basing a squadron of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at RAAF Amberley won’t be made until the mid-2020s, the F/A-18F Super Hornets and the new EA-18G Growlers will work closely with the F-35s when they arrive in Australia from 2019.

The F-35 is touted as the most advanced 5th Generation fighter in the world, but the fighter has attracted considerable criticism throughout its initial development. However, there’s no going back for Australia or partner nations in acquiring this advanced fighter.

It’s something of a dichotomy that the opinions of the F-35 critics and those of the pilots who fly the F-35 differ greatly. Australia’s decision to buy the F-35, without a traditional fly-off competition, has been controversial to say the least, but Defence says there really was no real contender, other than F-35, to meet its requirement for a 5th Generation fighter capability.

Commander Air Combat Group, Air Commodore Steve Roberton, says that criticism of the F-35 is nothing new.

“We’ve never introduced a new fighter aircraft that wasn’t at some stage controversial; even the Super Hornet a decade ago was called ‘a dog’ but now it is regarded the most capable multi-role fighter in the Iraq theatre,” he said.

“There’s a combination here, with the F-35, really three things that make it the best in the world.

“Stealth is important but it’s not the only thing. Stealth buys you time; it enables pilots to gather battlefield information without being seen or targeted. Stealth is built into the F-35 so that if an adversary manages to see and track you, it’s probably too late.

“The more important thing is the sensor fusion. The F-35 has been designed, with its mission data sets, to pull in an array of information; it then fuses that information into one easy to read display for the pilots, and they can use that to target their weapons and sensors.

“The F-35 combines stealth and sensor fusion, then it shares that information across the whole battlespace, so that makes everything else better.

“The F-35 will make the Super Hornet, the Growler, the Wedgetail – everything else in the Air Force inventory – much more capable. Also importantly, it will improve the situational awareness of naval ships and forces on the ground.”

Air Commodore Roberton said that the F-35 has been involved in large exercises in the United States such as Red Flag, and that the results speak for themselves: “the kill ratio of the F-35, and everything on its side, against other fighters and targets on the ground has been phenomenal,” he said. “And this will improve as we develop more modern tactics and procedures with the jet.

“The opposing aircraft were modern 4th Generation aircraft such as F-15, F-16 and F-18 types replicating tactics of other fighter aircraft from around the world.”

AIRCDRE Roberton is impatient to get the F-35, even though the aircraft is still in the initial stages of its development. “I would point out that even at its current level of maturity it’s still better than anything else out there.”

He said the current Super Hornet and ‘classic’ Hornet fleets are doing remarkably well.

“They are combat proven, and the classic Hornet is busier now than it has been in the 27 years of its life.

“But we will be ready to retire that airframe and take Air Force into this 5th Generation force, which is pretty exciting.”

For future defence capability, ‘Plan Jericho’ encapsulates how air power will combine with naval and land force assets in future operations, and AIRCDRE Roberton says F-35 is fundamental to ‘Jericho’.

“Part of our aerospace domain responsibility is ‘Control of the Air’; that is our primary task.

“The F-35 is going to be the centerpiece of that, working with Super Hornet, Growler, Wedgetail and KC-30A fleets.

“F-35 is fundamental to our ability to ‘control the air’, enabling us to do the precision strike, the intelligence gathering, the airlift tasks, and other operations.

“In a way, F-35 has been the kick-start to the idea of Jericho, which is really not about a tactic or an airframe, but more about bringing the whole defence force together as a truly networked force, to fight in the way we need to prepare to fight in the coming decades.”

AIRCDRE Roberton said that major ADF exercises, such as Pitch Black, will have Plan Jericho as central to the training and tactics development within the exercise.

“We have been working with Wedgetail and Super Hornet for some time now but when you add in an electronic attack capability, with Growler, and then a 5th Generation platform with F-35, that’s how we will fight in air combat arena in the future.”

From a futuristic perspective, AIRCDRE Roberton said that the modern battlespace will not only require control of the air but also control of the electromagnetic spectrum, and that Growler is fundamental to that capability. “It’s really important to us to have a highly survivable electronic warfare capability, and Growler will give us that.”

On another front, he says that opportunities to work with the F-22 Raptor squadron based at RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory will be excellent exposure for RAAF Hornet and Super Hornet crews, especially those pilots who ultimately will fly the F-35.

“An opportunity to work with the US Air Force, especially with their showpiece F-22 aircraft, that’s a massive opportunity for us.

“The aircrews will learn a lot about mixing a 4th Generation and 5th Generation force.

“There’s no pretence on our part that the F-35 can go out there and win the air battle on its own, and working with the F-22 they will learn how a 5th Generation force, such as F-22 and F-35, will make the rest of the force significantly better.

Editor’s note: In our May issue look out for the in-depth interview with the Australian pilots who are flying the F-35 with a US Air Force squadron in the United States.