08 May 2021

Systems Design: US Government Edition

It is cool that they solved this problem, but why was it even a problem? ‘Project Hydra’ connects US Air Force F-35 and F-22 via U-2 spyplane

Think about this statement for a minute.

The F-35’s Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) and the F-22’s Intra-Flight Data Link are incompatible, so the two aircraft types cannot transmit data to each other.

Who thought this was a reasonable design?

Here's how they "fixed" it.

To get around that problem, the USAF, Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed used an “Open Systems Gateway” communications payload aboard a U-2 to pass data between one F-22 and five F-35s, Lockheed said on 3 May.

Now I get that you might not be able to immediately transmit data between a cutting-edge piece of hardware like the F-35 and say the B-52, or the military version of the Boeing 707 still in service, but the F-22 is not an antique. Boeing delivered the last F-22 in 2012.

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