The U.S. Air Force tested emissions control (EMCON) tactics for the service's F-35A fighter by Lockheed Martin [LMT] in a combined Orange Flag and Black Flag exercise earlier this month. "We actually dived into some F-35 EMCON tactics so how do we turn on and off our things to manage our signatures a little better beyond just the radar spectrum," said Air Force Lt. Col. Mike "Pako" Benitez, director of staff for the Air Force 53rd Wing, the service's primary operational test wing. "Then we did some deep-end testing for F-16 AESA [active electronically scanned array] radar so we have a target saturated environment to stress test the software and the radar, but also the wave forms for some electronic attack and electronic detection. Then the last thing that we did where we call it non-traditional air-to-air survivability and that was a combined Orange and Black Flag effort because we had some common test objectives that we needed to get out of that." Through the F-35's stealth and EMCON, the F-35 is to be able to remain at stand-off range while detecting threats through passive Electronic Support Measures rather than the aircraft's on-board AN/APG-81 radar by Northrop Grumman [NOC] and other electronic signatures. Orange Flag at Edwards AFB, Calif., Emerald Flag at Eglin AFB, Fla., and Black Flag at Nellis AFB, Nevada, are the Air Force's new "test triad" for Joint All-Domain Operations and the 2018 National Defense Strategy. The three large force test events are to test Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System component, as well as new tactics and technologies for joint forces.
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