Data sharing, F-35 style
December 6, 2024
On 4 December 2024 Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) completed the first-ever real-time live data-share of classified F-35 data with a non-US Command and Control (C2) system.
In this demonstration, known as Project Deimos, an F-35 flying from Lockheed Martin’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas, shared classified data with an RAF RCO lab in Farnborough, UK. Data was passed via a Skunk Works’ Open Systems Gateway (OSG) through commercial satellite communications to the RCO laboratory, where it was ingested into the Nexus C2 system.
The multi-domain Nexus combat cloud was devised under Project Astra as part of the effort to develop a ‘next-generation air force’. It is intended to network all of the UK’s future aircraft and other platforms (though the RN and Army have their own systems, Storm Cloud and Odyssey), and has been operational in limited form since July 2021. Nexus lies at the heart of the Royal Air Force’s Future Air Command and Control system and is intended to be used with the Raven virtual communications node to create a Common Operational Picture by fusing data from multiple sources and then providing actionable battlespace intelligence in real time.
This achievement was claimed to mark a significant step forward in multi-domain integration, enabling F-35 interoperability in real-time with a non-US C2 system, though critics aver that this new system is just a proprietary and US-controlled software bridge, with US control of what is (and is not) passed to Nexus. Nor was the type of data revealed – whether it was mission data or maintenance/support data for ODIN/ALIS. Unless and until an F-35B can ‘talk’ directly to UK C2 systems, via only UK satellites and C2 infrastructure the UK will not have full operational control and sovereignty over the data.
Air Commodore Chris Melville, head of the RAF rapid capabilities office, was predictably more upbeat, and said that: “Project Deimos was a hugely successful UK/US trial which clearly demonstrated the ability to take data from a live F-35 and pass this to the RAF’s Nexus platform for exploitation. This represents a key step forward towards both a future integrated battlespace and Air Command and Control environment. The RAF Rapid Capabilities Office working in partnership with both Lockheed Martin and SiXworks, has proven how collaborative working with key industry partners can quickly and efficiently drive both innovation and future capability. We are all delighted with the results.”
SiXworks is an IBM-owned company, a boutique consultancy specialising in providing digital solutions in high security environments, and focused on experimentation and fail-safe-fast development.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works says that it is committed to delivering open architecture solutions which will enhance multi-domain integration across allied forces. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works vice president and general manager, John Clark said that: “This exercise marks a breakthrough in multi-domain operations, demonstrating the F-35’s ability to share classified data via an open systems gateway with our international partners. We collaborated closely with the UK Ministry of Defence and industry to achieve this feat, highlighting the power of partnership in driving innovation. Collaborations like this will allow us to deliver advanced capabilities quickly to meet urgent needs, in an increasingly complicated global threat environment.”
Some are already questioning how much the systems demonstrated in Project Deimos fit in with the vision outlined by the Chief of the Air Staff in his speech at DSEI on 13 September 2023. Sir Rich Knighton said then that: “And for me, it starts with getting away from proprietary systems and tie in. I have no shortage of big primes or newcomers into the business coming to try and sell me their architecture, their system, their standards. If you’re from a big prime, you’re making your money by controlling that, and us having to pay to adapt our systems because we have to pay you to do it. If you’re a newcomer, you’re making your money out of getting us hooked on the crack cocaine of whatever your system is, and then charging it for us by usage as we get to use more and more of it.”
