Getting Perspective on Nontraditional ISR: The F-22 and F-35 fighters are capable of much more than air-to-air or air-to-ground combat. “They are tremendous ISR platforms,” said Lt. Gen. Larry James, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance during his Sept. 17 afternoon address at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. In fact, as the US shifts its focus from Afghanistan on to other potential anti-access, area-denial locations “they may be some of our only airborne systems operating” in that environment. James said that issue as well as the best way to integrate data collected from the fifth-generation aircraft’s sensors into the Distributed Common Ground System will be part of the upcoming Corona summit. He said the goal is to brief the four stars and “get some perspective” on the issue, adding that a report on nontraditional ISR is due out soon.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…