Lockheed Martin is ramping up its Suffolk, Va.-based Center for Innovation by adding net-enabled air combat simulation capability to its net-centric laboratory, said company officials. They said the two simulators built to investigate emerging and future capabilities of the F/A-22 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will provide “unprecedented opportunities” to test new capabilities, technology, and interoperability within the framework of the network battlespace.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.