This time it is about the cockpit displays and visual cueing in the helmet. Not mentioned in any of this is that the software management has a long way to go; the original helmet is faulty and there is a contract for a less bleeding edge design (with less capability than the dream); and that buffet and jitter make employing weapons difficult.
"What 5th-generation aircraft are all about." Well, I bet the dumber-than-a-new-born-chimp marketing wonks never thought that "5th-generation" meant spending over $100B for 120-some combat-coded F-22s and an F-35 program on death-watch.
LM (via SLD--hard to tell the difference) also want us to believe that the F-35 is an advantage in the joint battle-space because the cockpit would be the same for all services in an F-35 war-effort.
This may be true. However all this has to actually work. And if common displays were a real joint need, F-15, F-16, and F-18 would already have it.
Here is something that doesn't over-reach. Below are evolving display thoughts for the Super-Hornet roadmap. If Boeing fighter production is allowed to continue into the next decade, these kinds of displays would see their way to the F-15 program.
(photo-Boeing)
Observers close to the Boeing program indicate this kind of display (which also offers a 3D perception mode), will lower maintenance costs and lower avionics thermal output compared to the current Block II system now fielded. Combined with the joint-helmet-mounted-cueing-system, the combat pilot will end up with something that actually works, and, doesn't qualify as a class-A mishap if someone drops a helmet.
