Patrick Durrant | Sydney
A US Marine Corps (USMC) F-35 Lightning II and an Aegis Weapon System have successfully engaged a target with a Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) missile for the first time during a live fire exercise.
The joint Lockheed Martin, US Navy and USMC exercise demonstrated the first integration of the F-35 to support Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA).
During the September 12 test, an unmodified F-35B from the Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1, acted as an elevated sensor and detected an over-the-horizon threat. The F-35B sent data through the aircraft’s Multi-Function Advanced Data Link (MADL) to a ground station connected to the Aegis Weapon System on the USS Desert Ship (LLS-1), a land-locked facility at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico used for test purposes. The Beechcraft MQM-107 Streaker drone, representing an adversarial target, was subsequently engaged and intercepted by an SM-6 launched from the range.
"This only scratches the surface of the potential warfighting capabilities F-35 aircraft will ultimately enable across our military forces."
Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics said the force multiplier effects of the F-35 were successfully proven in a realistic demonstration of distributed lethality.
"This only scratches the surface of the potential warfighting capabilities F-35 aircraft will ultimately enable across our military forces,” he said.
In a statement Lockheed Martin said the capability, when fully realised, will significantly increase the war fighter’s situational awareness using Aegis and the F-35 together to better understand the maritime operational environment.
“NIFC-CA is a game changer for the US Navy that extends the engagement range we can detect, analyse and intercept targets,” Dale Bennett, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems said.
As a former senior advisor to the US Chief of Naval Operations Bran Clark told USNI News, the MADL was not originally intended for anything other than F-35s being able to talk to one another.
"Originally we didn’t think F-35s would use through datalinks directly to ships… This gives them the ability to talk directly to the ship with a very hard to detect [and] very hard to jam MADL link,” Clark said.
He added the linking of the F-35’s powerful EW suite as a late addition to NIFC-CA is an “indictment of the original planning process that lead to the F-35".
Apart from the F-35, Australia is also purchasing other key nodes the US uses for NIFC-CA, with the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft already a part of the construct.
Raytheon's SM-6 will likely be procured for the Hobart class Air Warfare Destroyers under Sea 1360 Phase 1, scheduled for First Pass in either FY2016-17 or 2018-19.