Six F-35 Lightning IIs are squaring off against potential adversaries’ air defense systems to test the fighter’s real-world sensing and penetrating capabilities at Edwards AFB, Calif., reported Military.com. “The surface threat is a tough problem. … If the missile is big enough it can shoot you from hundreds of miles away,” said Thomas Lawhead, F-35 integration office operational chief. Testers are specifically probing the effectiveness of F-35’s electro-optical targeting system and distributed aperture situational awareness suite against Chinese, Iranian, and Russian threat systems, according to the April 17 press report. Pitting the F-35’s sensors and systems against various surface-to-air systems allows testers to develop a database of threat profiles “so that when the aircraft sees something on radar … it can categorize what it is,” added Lawhead.
The U.S. military is sending more fighter jets to the Middle East to step up its war with Iran, adding to what is already the largest buildup of airpower in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For now, the operation shows little sign of coming to a quick…