"If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying hard enough" is a good maxim for air combat, and many pilots seem to be finding that one particular gadget--the datalink--is a great help when it comes to implementing the kind of creative group tactics that-at least in the eyes of the loser-could be regarded as cheating.

High-speed secure datalinks are becoming more widely used on aircraft such as the Tornado F.3, Saab Gripen and the F-16A/B MLU. At a conference on fighter aircraft technology and markets in London last week (organized by defense conference specialists SMi), a number of pilots independently discussed the advantages of the link.

"We have had secure datalinks in the Swedish Air Force for more than a decade," remarked Brig. Gen. Mats Hellstrand, director of plans and programs for the Swedish AF, "but with AMRAAM and the datalink on the JAS39, we may see a change in tactics." Hellstrand believes that, with secure communications, groups of fighters will spread out more widely to cover a greater area with their missiles.

With datalinks, fighters can use their radars more sparingly. One fighter in a group may stand back and search for targets, sending information via datalink to other fighters. The adversaries focus on the "illuminator" and may not see the other attackers until it is too late. "The Belgians went up against some USAF F-15s earlier this year, and didn't say that they were taking MLUs," commented John Engels, Lockheed Martin avionics team leader on the MLU program. The F-16 pilots set up "silent" AMRAAM attacks using the MLU's Improved Data Modem, and gave the Eagles an unpleasant shock.

The F-15 was also the victim of the more advanced Link 16/JTIDS (Joint Tactical Information Distribution System) recently fitted to RAF Tornado F.3s. In exercises at Nellis AFB last year, the Tornados used JTIDS to download information from AWACS, and plan their attacks. "One on one, the F-15 will always beat the Tornado," one pilot commented, "but they did not know what was going on, and we did, and that made all the difference."

Datalinks also reduce the volume and vulnerability of radio traffic. "We used to talk tactics on VHF and to AWACS on UHF," comments Col. Jouke Eikelboom, Royal Netherlands AF representative on the JSF program. "Now, that's gone." Also, he says, communications jammers cannot lock on to the short IDM transmissions in time to jam them.

By Bill Sweetman