The jets are already sucking up an amazing amount of electronic signals data , which allows them to spot, categorize, and geolocate various emitters, including radars associated with air defense and artillery systems and communications nodes. The aircraft can then send that information to other aircraft, units on the ground, or command centers in rear areas to give other forces a more complete picture of the battlespace around them and potential threats. The F-35 can also fuse together imagery and other data it collects using its AN/APG-81 radar , Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS), and AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System (DAS), and share that information, as well.

In this general respect, F-35 represents the latest evolution of using aircraft as forward spotters for artillery units on the ground, a concept that is almost as old as airplanes themselves . The Joint Strike Fighter's expansive sensor suite, which you can read about more in these past War Zone stories , makes it particularly well suited to this kind of mission.

“The F-35 is a very capable aircraft executing against numerous targets. We can use its sensors to identify multiple targets, and we can use the Army to take them out," U.S. Air Force Captain Charles Humphrey, assigned to Air Combat Command acting as the exercise director for test, said in a subsequent statement . "We can start shaping the battlefield faster, because when we start fighting bigger opponents, we are needing to be able to do that.”

U.S. Army ground artillery units recently conducted a test in which they destroyed a mock air defense system based on targeting information from a U.S. Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighter . The tactic allowed the joint force to destroy a mock threat while allowing the F-35 to remain in its most stealthy mode and not reveal itself by engaging it directly. This is a concept of operations that could be extremely valuable for U.S. forces in a future large-scale conflict against an opponent with dense integrated air defense network and one that could easily expand to include other assets, including unmanned aircraft and new, longer-range artillery and tactical missile systems .

The Navy and the Air Force are also in the process of integrating the new AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) missile, a multi-purpose weapon primarily intended to destroy air defense radars, that will give the jets increased standoff range when engaging those targets. The Air Force is working on a more general-purpose derivative of that weapon, the Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW), which will also give its F-35As more options for dealing with pop-up threats.

What the Army and the Air Force have now done in New Mexico is take this one step forward and show how an air-ground team can work together to perform the suppression of enemy air defenses/destruction of enemy air defenses ( SEAD/DEAD ) mission, something that aircraft have primarily done in the past. This could offer the U.S. military an extremely important new capability for dealing with these threats depending on the exact situation.

So, it's not a huge leap to see how ground artillery units, who increasingly employ computerized targeting systems and GPS-assisted and other guided munitions, can take that data, especially the geolocation information, and then rapidly target those threats. The U.S. Marine Corps demonstrated doing just this in a separate exercise in 2018 , with a truck-mounted M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) destroying a shipping container with a guided 226mm artillery rocket after receiving targeting data from one of the service's F-35B Joint Strike Fighters .

Unfortunately, to effectively operate in these high threat environments at all, F-35s will also need to be flying in their most stealthy configuration, carrying only a limited number of weapons internally and keeping their own sensors in passive modes except when absolutely necessary. This is where ground artillery could come in as another way to help clear the path of threats for both stealthy and non-stealthy aircraft alike. As the F-35 did in this particular recent experiment in New Mexico, over an actual future battlefield, Joint Strike Fighters, while operating at the safest distance from the threat possible, could use its sensors, especially its passive ones, to geolocate targets and then feed that information to Army units. The Joint Strike Fighters would not have to use their own limited ordnance, either, preserving those weapons for more pressing threats. The aircraft could also stay on station after they've expended all of their own bombs and missiles and continue to destroy targets with an effectively unlimited magazine, albeit indirectly. Army artillery units down below also have the benefits of being highly flexible and able to rapidly shift focus from one target area to another, so long as it within their range, and can operate in poor weather that might ground aircraft or otherwise limit their ability to respond. Despite the obvious benefits, the concept the Air Force and the Army demonstrated in New Mexico still isn't ready for prime time just yet and will need refinements and further experimentation. The entire kill chain, from when the F-35 detected the target to when the M109A6s destroyed it, took 10 minutes and required the use of multiple different networks and data links. During the course of the exercise, the joint force evaluated eight different networks for sharing information between the stealthy jet and ground troops.

US Army Members of the 1st Armored Division Artillery inside an M109A6 self-propelled howitzer during the recent Joint Strike Fighter Integration experiment.

It's not clear whether any of these options involved the F-35 using its stealthy Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL), which is designed to reduce the likelihood of opponents detecting the transmissions and would be essential for keeping the jet concealed in an actual operational version of this scenario. It seems unlikely given that MADL can only communicate other aircraft equipped with this data link, which is presently only found on the Joint Strike Fighter. The Air Force is already pursuing a number of projects aimed at expanding the ability of MADL-equipped aircraft, which will also likely include the B-21 Raider stealth bomber in the future, to communicate stealthily with F-22 Raptors and other assets. There is also already an established tactic in which F-35s relay information among each other until the daisy chain reaches the edge of the high threat area, where the last aircraft can then safely broadcast it via other more readily accessible waveforms. The aircraft could also make use of some form of communications and data-sharing gateway, such as the Air Force's Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN). You can read more about these issues in this recent War Zone piece. The Air Force and Army are also very clearly looking at ways to expand this beyond just F-35s and howitzers, as well. New, extended-range 155mm guns will already give artillery units the ability to engage threats that Joint Strike Fighters mark while penetrating deeper into hostile territory.

via @lfx160219 A prototype of the Army's XM1299 howitzer, a derivative of the new M109A7 fitted with a larger main gun, which you can read about more here.

Joseph Trevithick A model of a proposed containerized launcher for the AGM-88G AARGM-ER.

“Today we are working with the Air Force and we are testing the ability of the U.S. Army’s field artillery to receive messages from an F-35, a 5th generation fighter jet, for possible fire missions,” U.S. Army Major William O’Neil, the fire support officer for the 1st Infantry Division's forces during the recent test in New Mexico, said afterward. “While we are using canons today, the M109A6 Paladins, the goal is how we integrate a Tomahawk cruise missile and other missile units at the division level into Joint Fires."

US Army A US Army briefing slide from 2018 showing how its various planned new atillery systems might operate on a future battlefield. This notably shows various extended-range artillery systems engaging air defense threats well behind the enemy front line.