Is the F-35 The Stealth Fighter of the “Free World” … Should it Be? Taiwan & India?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

In recent years, some have raised the question as to whether the F-35 is, is becoming or soon will be the fighter jet for “the free world,” and there is a lot of mounting evidence to suggest the global community of Joint Strike Fighter members will both expand and grow in size. 

There are many reasons for this such as the aircraft’s performance in wargames, customer nation responses to having the F-35 and testimonials from experienced pilots who have spent years flying 4th-generation aircraft and discuss the F-35.  

The jet is also growing in terms of sheer numbers, as the US Air Force alone already operates more than 300 F-35s, and allied nations are growing their fleet very quickly. Most of all, beyond Switzerland, Germany, Finland and many others, several as-of-yet non-F-35 customers are potentially entering the conversation, at least in terms of the realm of the possible. For example, there is no official or formal effort to sell the F-35 to India or Taiwan, yet the possibility is understandably getting a lot of attention. 

When one considers Korea’s participation in the F-35 program, Japan’s massive multi-billion-dollar F-35 buy and Israel’s special high-tech indigenous Adir variant, it would appear that the growing community of F-35 nations is becoming extremely significant.  Beyond the original members, the community of F-35 nations has exploded to include Finland, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and has for a while included Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and the UK. 

Fighter of the “Free World”

Clearly, this introduces a number of potentially unprecedented tactical implications, such as the ability for European allies to collectively form truly massive F-35 formations to achieve and sustain air supremacy, conduct Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) and share targeting and threat information.

Sharing target data, for instance, is of particular relevance given the often discussed Multi-Function Data Link (MADL) unique to the F-35, which enables continuous, secure, and high-speed data transmission between all F-35s regardless of country. This means that of course not only will F-35s operate with a collective ability to exchange targeting specifics but also function as “nodes” across meshed ISR formations. Specifically, F-35 sensors and computing bring a “drone”-like surveillance capability, which when combined with networking through MADL, can transmit time-sensitive intelligence data, images, and video across otherwise disparate formations of F-35s.