Five F-35A Joint Strike Fighters and a single F-22 Raptor “talked” with each other using their proprietary stealthy datalinks via a U-2S Dragon Lady spy plane carrying a specialized communications gateway payload, during a recent demonstration. This marks the first time that the Air Force’s two stealth fighters were able to exchange data freely in flight, something that has been years in the making. The U-2 was also able to simultaneously share information with assets on the ground and at sea, as well as with non-stealthy combat aircraft, all in near-real-time. That info was used to initiate strikes from ground-based artillery and naval assets as part of the high-stakes capability demonstration.

This demonstration event was known as Project Hydra. The company’s Skunk Works advanced projects division worked together with the Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to carry out the tests. Elements of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy were also involved.

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Source: F-22 And F-35 Datalinks Finally Talk Freely With Each Other Thanks To A U-2 Flying Translator

It only took 10 years or so. For a military so entrenched in netcentric engagement to have their premier aviation assets not be able to communicate at all for so long is a major embarrassment. That they can only do it using a U2 within range is pretty weak.

Both Russia and China appear to have employed information manipulation during the COVID-19 pandemic in service to their respective global agendas. This report uses exploratory qualitative analysis to systematically describe the types of COVID-19-related malign and subversive information efforts with which Russia- and China-associated outlets appear to have targeted U.S. audiences from January 2020 to July 2020 and organizes them into a framework. This work lays the foundation for a better understanding of how and whether Russia and China might act and coordinate in the domain of malign and subversive information efforts in the future.

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Key Findings

• Both countries disseminated messages through a wide variety of channels and platforms, including social media.
• Both countries attempted to tarnish the reputation of the United States by emphasizing challenges with its pandemic response and characterizing U.S. systems as inadequate.
• Both countries falsely accused the United States of developing and intentionally spreading the virus.
• The two countries appeared to differ in their principal goals for COVID-19-related information efforts: Russia aimed to destabilize the United States; China aimed to protect and enhance its own international reputation.
• Both countries modified their COVID-19-related messaging over time, focusing on conspiracy theories about the virus’s origins and impacts from March 2020 to April 2020 and later moving to concentrate on perceived U.S. failure in responding to the pandemic.
• While Russia deployed media with wide-ranging ideologies and a variety of audiences, China-linked messaging was ideologically uniform, consistent across multiple information outlets, and appeared to target audiences that were less varied.
• Countering apparent Russian and Chinese malign and subversive information efforts will require campaigns that consider the capabilities and thematic emphasis of each of these actors.
• Profiling Russian and Chinese sources known to frequently create and disseminate disinformation and propaganda can also inform counter-messaging efforts.
• China and Russia appear to amplify one another’s messages, when opportune. This might eventually lead to some collaboration, albeit limited in nature.
• Public health messaging should account for potential impacts of Russian and Chinese messaging on vaccination uptake

Source: Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information on COVID-19: Russian and Chinese Efforts Targeting the United States | RAND