Pentagon’s Future Battlefield Networking Concept Is Getting Real

MQ-4C Triton

During a recent industry-Navy demo, an F-35 used an MQ-4C Triton (pictured) to translate and process data before passing it along to an Aegis-class destroyer.

Credit: Northrop Grumman
A Lockheed Martin F-35 sensor finds the enemy ship, but its onboard stealthy data link cannot communicate with the best striking option, which in this case is a nearby missile-toting Aegis-class destroyer. So the F-35 passes the information instead to a nearby Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton. The...
Steve Trimble

Steve covers military aviation, missiles and space for the Aviation Week Network, based in Washington DC.

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