The UK Ministry of Defence and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works have completed an exercise demonstrating the transfer of targeting data from an F-35 through to British Army ground-based weapons systems.
The exercise, called Babel Fish and conducted at Blandford in April, used a synthetic environment to simulate data sharing between an F-35 and the UK MoD’s NEXUS command and control environment.
That data was then routed to the British Army ground layer, where it was used to present targeting options to commanders for closing kill chains. The exercise builds on Project DEIMOS, a previous demonstration completed in late 2024 that validated data transfer between the F-35 and the NEXUS C2 system, by adding the ground effector link that was absent from the earlier work.
Wing Commander Phillip Harrild, from Royal Air Force Military Strategic Headquarters Integrated Air and Missile Defence Directorate, said the exercise had proven a capability the military considers operationally relevant now rather than in the future. “The Babel Fish exercise was critical in proving that our ground effectors can directly utilise targeting data from the F-35. This capability magnifies the value provided by F-35 and enables us to leverage existing systems to deliver operational advantage today.”
OJ Sanchez, vice president and general manager of Skunk Works, described the underlying architecture as the enabling factor. “Our open systems technology serves as the connective tissue that allows the F-35 to communicate with partner C2 networks and interface with ground assets. This ready-now capability accelerates coalition Multi-Domain Operations and reinforces our commitment to interoperability for allied sovereign systems.”
The ability to route sensor and targeting data from a fifth-generation aircraft directly to land-based weapons without passing through U.S.-controlled systems has been a long-standing ambition for the UK and other F-35 partners seeking greater sovereign operational flexibility. The F-35’s sensor suite and data fusion capabilities make it one of the most capable intelligence-gathering platforms currently in service, but translating that information into actionable targeting data for ground forces in real time has required the kind of C2 integration work that Babel Fish and DEIMOS represent.
