Talk Stealthy to Me

An F-35A Lightning II joint strike fighter and an F-22A Raptor. Image: Jeremy T. Lock/Wikimedia

This article was originally published by War on the Rocks on 4 December, 2014.

As the Air Force Times recently reported, the F-22 and F-35A conducted their first integrated training mission earlier this month. Several observers declared this mission, which included offensive counter air, defensive counter air and interdiction operations, to be a success. But if the planes are to actually operate as a cohesive strike package in the complex A2/AD environments of the future, the services will first need to address a glaring gap in interoperability: data links.