L’importante è volare ….
“ …. Without a radar, Penney said, the newest F-35s can fly training missions and help those squadrons transitioning to the F-35 from the A-10 Thunderbolt II or F-16 Fighting Falcon. But in combat or combat training, the new jets are still far from blind without their radars. The Lightning II has an electro-optical distributed aperture system providing 360-degree awareness to detect threats, weather conditions and more, and it has extensive data sharing capabilities enabling it to take advantage of the radar in a wingman F-35, or that of a nearby airborne battle management plane, such as the E-3 Sentry.
“It’s still a very viable combat asset,” Penney said. “Is it ideal? Is it as fully capable? It’s not. But if you are able to mix the formation, then you can make up for the lack of radar in many ways.”