How sale of F-35s can boost UAE's military capabilities

 | Updated: Aug 24, 2020, 12:29 AM IST

There was a lot of brouhaha after Israeli media a few days ago reported that the US is considering the sale of F-35 stealth fighters to the United Arab Emirates. Experts are seeing this as a gift from Washington to Abu Dhabi post the peace agreement between Israel and UAE.

We don't know whether the US will sell these aircraft, but what we do know is these jets have a lot of capability. Take a look.  

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The capabilities of F-35 can be understood from the fact that these stealth fighters can go to places where no other combat aircraft can and bring information and neutralise threats to ensure victory. 
 

(Photograph:AFP)

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Many senior military experts and officials also don't know all the features of these combat aircraft. For eg, F-35s stealth feature that avoids detection on radars is not known to many and a lot of information related to this jet is also kept confidential, which means that it will be difficult for the enemy to plan the next move. 
 

(Photograph:AFP)

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One of the most important elements of these combat aircraft is the AN/ASQ-239 EW suite, which provides both offensive and defensive capabilities, which include detecting hostile emitters to the automated release of countermeasures. It gives continuous, precise monitoring of threat frequencies in all directions and displays relevant information to the visor of the high-tech helmet worn by the pilot handling the jet.
 

(Photograph:AFP)

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The EW system is so comprehensive that it is hard to describe where the EW system starts and where does it end. A central processor sorts out various inputs at the rate of a trillion operations per second and then the most appropriate on-board systems are used to assess threats on a priority basis. For example, a "distributed aperture system" of six infrared cameras might detect the launch of a surface-to-air missile from a particular location. 
 

(Photograph:AFP)
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No jet can be invisible in every electromagnetic frequency, but the designing of F-35 is such that it is hard to detect in the frequencies used by targeting radars. This means that an enemy would need to be nearly within visible range to even attempt a kill (very few enemies would be able to successfully do that before getting shot down).
 

(Photograph:AFP)