F-22 and F-35 Aircraft Finally Talk Stealth to Each Other, U-2 Spy Plane Helps 4 May 2021, 8:47 UTC ·
by 1 photo
The latest flight test, dubbed Project Hydra, used an Open Systems Gateway (OSG) payload aboard the U-2 to link an F-22 to five F-35s through an Intra-Flight Data Link (IFDL) and a Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL). The demonstration made it possible to exchange data in free flight between all aircraft and ground nodes.
The Airforce has been trying over the years to develop a new technology that could make this type of communication possible. Up until recently, the F-22 couldn t transmit stealthy data to any aircraft besides other F-22s. The F-35s also couldn t communicate with the F-22s except at the voice level. All because each aircraft used different Low Probability of Interception (LPD/LPI) communications.
By Garrett Reim2021-05-03T23:51:00+01:00
The US Air Force’s (USAF’s) Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters passed data to one another using a communications gateway aboard a Lockheed U-2 spyplane.
The F-35’s Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) and the F-22’s Intra-Flight Data Link are incompatible, so the two aircraft types cannot transmit data to each other.
Source: US Air Force
US Air Force F-35A stealth fighter
To get around that problem, the USAF, Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed used an “Open Systems Gateway” communications payload aboard a U-2 to pass data between one F-22 and five F-35s, Lockheed said on 3 May. The gateway also allowed the stealth aircraft to share data with units on the ground. And, target tracks were transmitted by and through the U-2 into the fighters’ avionics and pilot displays, the company says.
While this isn't exactly a secret, what is unclear is whether the Son of the Blackbird, as the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been dubbed, was ever more than vaporware.
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Hi everyone,
This is a transcript of my presentation over at the European Microwave Week
2020, actually held in 2021. You can find the video
here and the slides
here. I’d like to thank Frank van
Vliet,
general chair of the EMW, for inviting me to do this talk.
The words have only been edited lightly - it is still presentation style, so
here and there the sentences are not written like how they’d be in a more
formal piece of work.
Transcript
Welcome everyone, to this perhaps somewhat strange presentation. I’ve
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