After years of debate about the future of tactical, airborne electronic attack for the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps, it appears the F-35 will become the next-generation, digital warfare aircraft for both services.

The platform most in demand in combat today is some kind of electronic attack (EA) aircraft, say military operational experts. So the pressure for more aircraft and advanced capabilities is already an operational reality. But the basic question of who does what for whom and to whom remains unanswered.

"Who will provide electronic fires to ground troops in contact?" mused Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, program executive officer for the F-35 Lightning II. "That's a core mission area for the Air Force, Navy and Marines. Delivering electronic fires will be at the heart of what F-35 does. [But] the decision about how this [and other EA aircraft will be used in the electronic fires arena has not been made."

Despite the vagaries, Davis says, "There is no doubt in my mind that eventually this airplane will fulfill the [EA] role of the EA-6B Prowler."

But development of a specialized electronic attack variant will not take the classic approach that produced the Air Force's EF-111 Raven or the Navy's EA-6B Prowler and EA-18G Growler.

While there's still nothing in the order book, top joint program officials say studies are underway that would add advanced electronic weaponry to the aircraft through the use of exterior pods and antenna arrays. Those add-ons are being designed in parallel efforts such as the Next-Generation Jammer program, and they are aimed at taking advantage of the F-35's inherent connectivity and enhancing the EA capabilities already tucked into the aircraft's interior.

"[The F-35 has] to be interoperable with 80 different platforms and trade 140+ different kinds of information from the ground, ships and aircraft," Davis says. The role of EA aircraft would add at least one more capability to its 23 missions.

Davis hinted at the compatibility of electronic emissions and stealth. "The F-35 is specifically designed to take advantage of lessons learned from [the first stealthy strike aircraft,] the F-117," he says. "Unlike the F-117, the ability to share tactically important information is built into the F-35 [without compromising its] stealth."

But the aerospace industry is not united in the view that the F-35 is the single answer to next-generation, airborne electronic attack. Some specialists worry the F-35 will be short of electrical power and payload space with virtually no room to add systems into its packed interior. The options are to put jammers and additional power supplies in the weapons bays to stay stealthy or put them on the exterior and revert to a stand-off jamming role.

"Every design has its limitations," says a senior electronics industry official with long experience in electronic warfare. "No one aircraft is going to answer all the problems facing airborne electronic attack."