By
Theresa Hitchens on May 07, 2021 at 12:45 PM
Lockheed Martin’s Project Hydra
WASHINGTON: Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has demonstrated a capability for F-22 and F-35 fighter jets to share situational awareness data
in flight via a U-2 spy plane kitted out with the company’s ‘translation’ software, says Dan Markham, Skunk Works director of JADO/BMC2. Lockheed also transmitted data from the F-35 to a ground station using a Navy datalink, TTNT, and then on from there to an Army network, IBCS.
“This is really the first time that all three of those live platforms in the air were connected,” he said in an interview yesterday.
“We like to talk about hardware and airplanes, and that’s all good; but for those assets to do what they will need to do five years from now and 10 years from now, we will have to manage data effectively. We will have to fuse data and get data from the sensor to the shooter in real time so that we can deal with the kinds of threats that we perceive in 2030 and beyond,” he continued.
ABMS will allow the Air Force to transition its legacy command and control infrastructure into joint virtual systems that enable all equipment to communicate seamlessly, creating more agile and mobile warfighters.