F-35 News. Sensor Fusion is now what makes a 5th gen fighter?

via SLDInfo.

People focus on stealth as the determining factor or delineator of the fifth generation, it isn’t, it’s fusion. Fusion is what makes that platform so fundamentally different than anything else. And that’s why if anybody tries to tell you hey, I got a 4.5 airplane, a 4.8 airplane, don’t believe them. All that they’re talking about is RCS (Radar Cross Section).
Fusion is the fundamental delineator.

And you’re not going to put fusion into a fourth gen airplane because their avionic suites are not set up to be a fused platform. And fusion changes how you use the platform.
What I figured out is I would tell my Raptors, I don’t want a single airplane firing a single piece of ordinance until every other fourth gen airplane is Winchester. Because the SA right now that the fifth gen has is such a leveraging capability that I want my tactics set up to where my fourth gen expend their ordinance using the SA that the fifth gen provides, the fifth gen could then mop up, and then protect everybody coming in the next wave.

Just plain wow.

I don't know air combat but that really sounds like you're attempting to give a fighter plane the AWACS mission.  Additionally notice how the definition of 5th generation is changing...via Wikipedia...

The exact characteristics of fifth-generation jet fighters are controversial and vague, with Lockheed Martin defining them as having all-aspect stealth even when armed, Low Probability of Intercept Radar (LPIR), high-performance air frames, advanced avionics features, and highly integrated computer systems capable of networking with other elements within the theatre of war for situational awareness.[1]

There is no doubt that 4.5 gen airplanes have advanced avionics...as a matter of fact according to the latest reports they carry superior avionics to those that will enter service with the F-35.

So they're attempting to move the goalposts and influence the uninformed.  The pressure from the PAK-FA, J-20 and J-31 are already pushing the Pentagon to look toward the 6th gen fighter but the damage to our nations defense caused by the F-35 are already stark and growing.

The whole thing is going from the criminal to the insane and now to the "what the fuck" right before our eyes.

Fact.  The Pentagon has sacrificed modernization of its ground forces to put into service an airplane that is already obsolete, is in many ways inferior to the planes its due to replace and is expensive beyond all reason.  We won't even compare it to Russian and Chinese stealth jets...the Japanese and Koreans know this.  That's why they're beginning work on their own jets.

Fact.  The messaging for this airplane has spiraled out of control.  More and more mainstream news outlets are asking questions...not simply repeating the talking points from the program office.

Fact.  The President is pushing so many social programs that in order to keep from putting the US deeper into a financial hole, the Republican defense hawks will be lucky to draw the line at current spending.  With the dynamic of attempting to increase defense spending while holding the line on social spending the politics will be plain awful.

Result.  Sequestration will continue.  The plane will either be cut or the numbers ordered reduced.

This year will be telling.  Even if they can somehow get it into service the issue is already settled.  This program is a failure.