During a recent exercise, the F-35 stealth fighter jet breached enemy airspace within minutes, collected crucial target data, and transmitted it to rocket artillery units to ultimately eliminate the target, fulfilling its role as an airborne quarterback.
The F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation multirole stealth fighter jet and one of the most advanced aircraft. The F-35 is designed for six different mission sets: strategic attack, close air support, air superiority, electronic warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as SEAD (suppression of enemy air defenses)/DEAD (destruction of enemy air defense systems).
According to a report by Business Insider on April 16th, defense giant Lockheed Martin announced this week that this achievement marks the first real-time classified data sharing conducted outside the United States. This capability demonstration took place during a recent exercise in the Netherlands, highlighting the F-35’s interoperability and its ability to command combat missions.
The F-35 stealth fighter jet is known as the “quarterback” in the sky, capable of leading the team even without direct engagement. The F-35 can covertly collect target data in anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environments, relay operational information, and enable a unit to carry out strike missions that would otherwise be impossible to accomplish independently. This is a crucial capability of fifth-generation fighters.
Lockheed Martin announced this week that during the NATO’s largest tactical air exercise, “Ramstein Flag 2025,” at Leeuwarden Air Base, the Skunk Works facility successfully achieved data sharing between a flying F-35 fighter jet and the Dutch “Keystone” command and control system.
In the exercise, Dutch F-35 jets located and identified simulated enemy ground targets in a denied environment, transmitted the data through Skunk Works’ open-system gateway using a multifunction advanced data link, and passed the information to Keystone. The Keystone command and control system then relayed this information to an unspecified artillery unit.
Lockheed Martin stated, “The artillery successfully attacked the ground targets and confirmed a successful hit, effectively closing the loop attack.”
The role played by the F-35 in this exercise highlighted its two main advantages: its all-aspect stealth, advanced aviation electronics, and high-end sensors enable the aircraft to operate in contested airspace; and its strong networking capabilities make it both a sensor platform and a shooter, able to gather critical information for other weapon systems to use in destroying enemy targets.
Lockheed explained, “By unlocking the vast data of the F-35, the Skunk Works’ operations command center enables allied air defense and missile systems to receive precise target information, allowing for more effective detection, tracking, and defeat of threats.”
In this exercise, the F-35 cooperated with rocket artillery, rather than air defense systems.