Summary and Key Points: Despite ongoing criticism over cost and complexity, the F-35 continues to prove its worth operationally, becoming the preferred stealth fighter for 19 nations.
-Equipped with advanced computing, sensor fusion technology, and stealth capabilities, the fighter consistently demonstrates superior combat performance—dominating 4th-generation fighters in simulations and real-world scenarios.
-The fighter’s ability to operate as a central node in multi-domain networks, such as missile defense systems and unmanned drone operations, further underscores its tactical flexibility and value.
-With upcoming upgrades to weaponry, laser integration, and networking capabilities, the fighter remains a cornerstone of NATO and allied air dominance strategies.
The F-35 Is Unstoppable
The well-known and regularly discussed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has for years been trapped between two complex yet opposing narratives; however, there is a baseline “factual” reality that seems to emerge from the ambiguity.
The Never Ending F-35 Debate
Militaries, pilots, and governments around the world continue to acquire and praise the platform enthusiastically, and the aircraft now has an initial record of performance, which lends credibility to the argument in favor of the jet.
For years, the F-35 has been plagued by critics who lament the “cost” of the program and express concerns about production and software delays, maintenance challenges, and other, at times, unspecified complications.
Other F-35 detractors have argued that as a multi-role fighter, the aircraft represents an attempt to do “too many things” in a single platform and is, for example, not as fast or arguably air-maneuverable as an F-22.
The F-35 hits max speeds of Mach 1.6, whereas the F-22 can travel up to speeds of Mach 2.25. However, the two aircraft have vastly different mission profiles and are intended to complement one another.
The F-35 Can Crush Anything in the Sky
When placed in context, it would seem to be important that while the F-35 can successfully dogfight and maneuver into position as a stealthy, 5th-generation aircraft, the computing, sensing, and targeting capabilities built into the aircraft will often “remove” the need for an F-35 to engage in dogfighting.
Wargames, combat deployments, and the aircraft’s actual performance parameters, coupled with its integrated sensing and computing, have shown that the platform is quite possibly the most superior fighter the world has ever seen. Like many large acquisition programs, the F-35 has faced many challenges and setbacks.
However, a clear “circumstance” seems to blast through the clutter of criticisms. The program has expanded from eight countries years ago to as many as 19-member nations and is becoming regarded as the major platform for the free world.
In just the last several years, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Finland, and Czechia (formerly the Czech Republic) have all joined the F-35 community of nations.
J.R. McDonald, vice president of F-35 development at Lockheed Martin, told me that there would be as many as 600 F-35s throughout the European continent.
Red Flag Wargame: Stealth Fighters Win
There are many reasons why pilots and F-35 member nations have chosen the aircraft, and some countries, such as Switzerland, have performed their own “fly-off” assessments, placing the F-35 against other leading 5th-generation offerings throughout the world.
One enduring and somewhat defining element of the F-35 can be traced back to its performance in the Air Force’s Red Flag Wargame many years ago.
Using its advanced, long-range, high-fidelity sensing, computing, and stand-off range targeting, a single F-35 demonstrated it could see and destroy groups of 4th-generation fighters from a distance where the aircraft itself could not be detected.
The JSF is also famous for operating as somewhat of a pioneer in the realm of computing, networking and “sensor fusion” technology, a technological ability to aggregate, organize and present otherwise disconnected areas of incoming sensor input onto a single screen for pilots.
F-35 Data
The tactical, strategic, and operational merits of this ability to mass networked F-35s across the entire continent seem extensive, something F-35 proponents and advocates describe as limitless.
The warplane is, already a stealthy multi-role fighter with advanced avionics, computing, software, and weapons, yet its operational scope has expanded considerably in recent years.
One reason for this is the successful use of technical interfaces, gateways, and other technologies designed to enable interoperability. For example, all F-35s from all countries operate with a secure, high-bandwidth data link known as Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL).
In coming years, the F-35 will receive new software drops for ‘weapons interfaces” and computing and fire control updates and is being developed to fire lasers and hypersonic weapons.
F-35 Drone-Like Sensing
The fighter has now functioned as a sensor “gateway” or “node” performing missile defense and targeting missions within a joint operational theater, the aircraft can now network with and even operate nearby “loyal wingman” drones and unmanned systems from the cockpit and it is progressively expanding the sphere of multi-domain nodes and platforms it can exchange information with.
One of the most recent areas of expansion is an emerging ability for an F-35 to successfully network with a US Navy Aegis Combat System on a surface warship. “The sky’s the limit of how much information we are able to share with different elements. We are now in an experimentation phase exchanging information with an Aegis Cruiser and other assets out there.
The fighter can share a lot of targeting and sensing data. An F-35 takes information not just from its own sensors but from other nodes – takes a common picture of what is around them,” McDonald said. “Now we are waiting for the policy to catch up with technology.”
Expanded F-35 Operations
There are many specific instances in which the F-35 has expanded its concept of operation in recent year,s spanning all the military services.
The Army’s Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), a fast-emerging, elaborate missile defense radar and fire control network, has expanded into the aerial domain and networked with an F-35 in position to detect missile threats from different angles and altitudes of great value to the missile defense system.
The now-operational IBCS began as a series of ground-based radar and fire-control nodes connecting technologies such as a Sentinel radar and Patriot Missile system engineered to seamlessly share real-time threat information from dispersed locations across a theater of operations.
In recent years, IBCS has added aerial F-35s to its multi-domain system of integrated missile defense sensor and interceptor system.
This integration is extending to the sea, as McDonald said, given that an F-35 and the IBCS systems are being engineered to network with surface-ship-based Aegis Combat Systems.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
