Navy Air Boss: F-35C Advanced Sensors, Situational Awareness a ‘Game-Changer’

The Navy’s top aviator checked out a simulator for its next-generation fighter jet, the F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), on Monday and lauded its advanced capabilities that will give it a leg up compared to legacy strike aircraft.

A “game-changer,” said Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of Naval Air Forces, is the ability for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to “suck in all that information” from various sensors and fuse it together to give pilots information in “a great, clear picture of who’s good and who’s bad.”

“I’m very excited about the capability this airplane brings to our future air wings,” Shoemaker said, speaking to a group of journalists checking out the F-35 demonstrator set up in a ballroom near the North Island air terminals and a short drive from Shoemaker’s headquarters building.

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