1.
The F-35: Getting On With It
Cultural Change You Can Believe In
Dr. Robbin F. Laird
Second Line of Defense

2.
Overview
• The F-35 and its ability to work with, to leverage and to
enhance the capability of the power projection forces is at the
heart of the next 20 years of rebuilding U.S. and allied forces.
• It is really a “flying combat system”, rather than a tactical
aircraft, which allows the US and its allies to look at power
projection in a very different way.
• And it allows the U.S. and its allies to get best value out of
their forces.
• But the F-35 is a centerpiece of disruptive change.
• If the culture of thinking about combat does not change, and
one thinks of this as the next iteration of what the services
will have for combat aircraft, the entire revolution will be
missed.
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3.
The Baseline Aircraft: 9 Core
Capabilities Built-In
• A new cockpit and helmet which enable the pilot to
function as a tactical decision maker;
• A fusion engine which brings together and
integrates the core combat systems on the F-35;
• The fusion engines of the F-35 fleet are designed to
share information across the combat enterprise, or
put in other terms each plane is synergy enabled;
• The plane is built as a weapon system built on a
foundational architecture of chip and software
upgradeability;
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4.
The Baseline Aircraft (2)
• The software is built to shape a manageable workload for the pilot;
• Stealth is built into the aircraft and is a core enabler for the entire
aircraft;
• As a flying combat system, the F-35’s advanced agility is a key
enabler of combat operations;
• The power plant of the F-35 enables a long term growth strategy for
the fusion engine. Unlike unmanned aircraft, where the power
plant is devoted to flying the aircraft resulting in less than optimal
sensor and weapons loading, the F-35 has significant growth
possibilities;
• The F-35 can fire a full gamut of legacy weapons but lays the
foundation for the next generation of weapons as well.
• http://www.sldinfo.com/the-baseline-f-35/
• In short, it is built for the I Pad Generation Pilots
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5.
The Z Axis for Combat Aircraft
Y: Performance Z: C4ISR-D “OODA”
Loop
Z Axis:
Migration from
externally
X Axis: Time
provided C3I to
Generations of Combat Aircraft C4ISR-D in the
Clustering Over Time(1,2,3,4,5….) cockpit carried by
As Measured by Range, Payload the individual air
(improved by system/and weapons platform.
carried), Maneuverability (measured by
P Sub s), Useful speed, and Range Line of Defense
Second

6.
F-35 Z-Axis Fusion
C-5 ISR/D (Decision) Cockpit
AESA
Radar
Off Load to Other Off Load to Other
Platforms Platforms
Communications, Distributed
Navigation and Aperature
Identification System (DAS)
System (CNI)
Electronic Electrical Optical
Warfare System Targeting System
(EOTS)
• F-35 Individual Pilots Internal to Their Cockpit Will Have the Best Real Time Data Base of Knowledge in History
• Each F-35 Will Be Able To Network and Direct Engagements in 360-Degrees of 3-Dimensional Space by Off Loading
Tracks to Other Air/Land/Sea/Space Platforms – Including UAVs and Robots
• Fusion Engine Can Drive Unity of Purpose in Focusing World Wide IR&D and R&D on Enhancing C5ISR-D Cockpit
Because Each Discreet System Can Be Improved Independently
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7.
Fleet Wide Impacts
• “No Platform Fights Alone”
• Built from the Bottom Up to be a 21st Century Aircraft
– Fleet-Wide Logistics
– Global Transparency
• Distributed Operations
– Wolfpack Approach Enabled
– Leverage the Old to Support the New
• Pull Function
• Retire the OLD (Move on from AWACs, etc.) to Pay for
the New if that is Required
• If you did not have an F-35, you would have to invent it
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8.
F-35 Growth Path
Growth is Driven by both Platform Evolution and
Evolving Distributed Fleet Operations
Fusion Engine
Development
Distributed Fleet
Operations
Capabilities of the
Individual Aircraft
F-35 Fleet Operating Globally
Platforms are
and with Global Sustainment
Upgraded Over
Provides Capabilities for Both
Time Enabled by
Strategic and Tactical
An Upgradeable
Operations for both the US
System
and its Allies
Architecture
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9.
Culture Change
• Not a Generational but an Epochal Change
• Preparing for Tron Warfare
• “Aegis is My Wingman”
• The F-35 Fleet is a Core Missile Defense Asset
• And a Central Player in Dealing with Hypersonics
• Logistical Revolution at the Center of Enhanced Combat
Capabilities
• A New Approach to Combat Learning
• A New Approach to Training
• http://www.defensenews.com/article/20110221/DEFFEAT0
5/102210314/Embrace-Air-Power-Revolution
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10.
Glimpses of the Future
• Northern Edge
• Bold Alligator 2012
• Libyan Operations
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11.
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12.
BA-12 and F-35 Combat Systems
• The BAC1-11 aircraft carrying the F-35 combat systems and see
many capabilities coming soon to the ESG;
• What I saw on the BAC1-11, I have exponentially greater ability to
scan and “see” the battlespace with exponentially greater fidelity
than ever before, locating and positively identifying everything from
air to sea targets. I can look at the battlespace with the radar, the
DAS, a host of other sensors and basically can bring all that
information together into one data system, fuse that information —
which makes it a flying sensor. (General “Dog” Davis, CG, 2nd MAW).
• http://www.sldinfo.com/special-report-bold-alligator-2012-and-the-
future-of-the-expeditionary-strike-group/
• http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120415/DEFFEAT05/30415
0007/Shaping-Battlespace
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13.
F-35 Bravo Aboard the USS Wasp, October 2011
The F-35 community of users – sea based and land based — will be able
to create a pretty tight air grid over the top of the distributed battle space
so we can share information very freely out there.
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14.
Facilitates Shift in Power Projection
Approach
• Aggregative: Signaling, American led, phases where more capability is
aggregated and stacked up; linear approach
• Scalable: Presence, Honeycombed, U.S. role can be flexible, Allies are
forward deployed, multi-directional versus linear.
• The first requires significantly greater numbers of platforms, is
unaffordable in today’s conditions, and requires an American leadership
role out of sync with the evolving global situation.
• And the core competitor – the PRC – is shaping its power projection forces
around the linear approach. Countering Chinese presence and strategy in
Asia is best down with a presence, economy of scale and a reach back
strategy.
• The second leverages U.S. and allied technologies, is affordable under
today’s conditions, and allows for a variable U.S. leadership role in sync
with the evolving global situation.
Second Line of Defense

15.
Shift in Power Projection (2)
• http://www.sldinfo.com/special-report-on-
crafting-a-new-pacific-strategy/
• Forthcoming: Joint Forces Quarterly: The F-35
and the Future of Power Projection (Laird and
Timperlake)
• The Long Reach of Aegis (Proceedings, January
2012,
http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/
2012-01/long-reach-aegis
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16.
Re-Shaping Pacific Power
Projection
Presence
Economy of
Force
Scalability
Allies are Always Forward
Deployed
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17.
Inside the Beltway Games
• The Boomer Column
• Platform Centric; Stove Piping
• The 57 Year Aircraft
• Test and Build the Bureaucracy Rather Than Build the
Aircraft
• Concurrency Games
• Keep the Old Because We are Leading From Behind
• We are Poor
• Ignore those MANUFACTURED aircraft flying over your
heads
• Ignoring the Osprey
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18.
Conclusions
• You Can Fight With Horses if You Want Too; I am Taking
Tanks, Airplanes and a New Warfighting Approach
• Options are Inherent in the Technologies; But if You Want
to Stay in the Platonic Cave So Be It
• A Nike Defense Policy
• Don’t Study the Supply Chain: Manufacture the Aircraft
• Embrace Culture Change
• Use the Pacific Opportunity as a Reshaping Force for the
Future
– Allies are Always Forward Deployed
– How can WE plug in?
– How can the U.S. Enable and Surge?
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19.
For More Information (1)
• Second Line of Defense
http://www.sldinfo.com
• Second Line of Defense Forum
http://www.sldforum.com
• AOL Defense
http://defense.aol.com/
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