For $109 million I fully expect it to be able to make a cell phone call

[Dispatcher91]

This article on the F35 popped up in my feed today. it just seems kinda underwhelming that the big news is the F35's ability to send an info package. Wait until they find out what we did with SINGARS back in the 90's.

An F-35 stealth fighter flying in Texas sent classified data to an air base 5,000 miles away in Denmark

The demonstration shows how the F-35 can effectively gather critical information on a battlespace and distribute it to allies.

www.businessinsider.com

"The US defense contractor Lockheed Martin said one of its F-35 stealth fighters sent classified data from Texas to a command center about 5,000 miles away in Denmark, calling this a milestone and a successful demonstration of how systems work together."

 

[kl3309]

...one of its F-35 stealth fighters sent classified data from Texas to a command center about 5,000 miles away in Denmark...

Pffft, the Chinese spy balloon that the Biden admin allowed to fly all across N. America to beyond the shores of S. Carolina was sending data at beyond 7000 mi. before .gov figured it couldn't gather any more useful info and terminated its track.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

I think the Anduril Corporation's Fury unmanned fighter would be the next biggest gamechanger in the future of warfare. It fulfills one of General George S. Patton's quotes that is perhaps the most pragmatic and sensible applying to warfare in general: "The goal of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his". Military victories are not determined by martyrs and courageous last stands, but casualties, damage, and psychological morale depletion inflicted on the enemy camp. The Fury with AI integrated, but human override capable and remote controllable manual mode would be a ninja in the night sky on the battlefield of the future.

A manned enemy jet pilot and their commanders, even if they get a lock on the Fury, would come to two realizations:

1. "Even if we manage to shoot that thing down, we'd just have knocked out a moderately expensive toy which that country, which is now colonizing Mars, can produce at a rate of one per factory every 8 hours at very little cost."

2. "If that thing gets the upper hand and shoot us down, we'd lose our expensive plane produced at the cost of thousands of starving peasants, and most likely lose our ace pilot too."

Fury, and it's next line of equal vehicles land/sea/air, would inflict psychological dread on potential enemies the way the first nuke did...