The F-22 Raptor Will Soon Share Its God’s Eye View of the Battlespace

The F-22 Raptor Will Soon Share Its God’s Eye View of the Battlespace

Thirteen years after entering service with the U.S. Air Force, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighter finally could gain the capability wordlessly to communicate with ships, ground forces and other planes.

The Air Force and Lockheed in 2020 plan to begin installing on the roughly 180 F-22s the Link-16 datalink, which allows U.S. and allied forces to swap location and targeting data via voiceless radio message.

Link-16 is standard on U.S. and allied planes, ships and air-defense systems, but the F-22 at present doesn’t include the system. That’s because the F-22 with its stealth features could give away its location by broadcasting Link-16 messages.

Raptor pilots wordlessly can communicate with each other by way of the F-22’s unique, highly-secure datalink. But to communicate with, say, the pilot of a nearby F-16, a Raptor pilot must open a radio channel and just … talk.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2WISsob

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Видео The F-22 Raptor Will Soon Share Its God’s Eye View of the Battlespace канала US Defense Today