[3] In the future, CEC will form a key pillar of the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) capability,[4] which will allow stealthy sensor platforms such as the F-35C Lightning II to act as forward observers with their observations channeled through the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye to less stealthy platforms such as the UCLASS or Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
[5] In a combat situation where the United States Navy would need to penetrate an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment, a carrier air wing would launch all of its aircraft.
This can allow forward-deployed Super Hornets or Lightning IIs to receive data and launch weapons without needing to even have their own radars active.
[6] Cooperative engagement also applies to ship-based protective features where Aegis radars of guided missile cruisers and destroyers are linked together into a single network to share data as a whole.
Previously these bands might see stealth aircraft but not clearly enough to generate a missile lock, but with improved computing power, fire control radars could discern targets more precisely by the 2020s or 2030s.
The creation of digital AESA VHF acquisition radars, including the Russian ground-based 3D Nebo SVU and Chinese ship-borne Type 517M, offering detection at greater ranges, faster and more accurate cueing of engagement radars, enhanced resistance to jamming, and improved mobility contribute to the perceived vulnerability of small stealth fighters.
[10] Several important factors made the intercept in 1999 possible, including engagement radars being active for no more than 20 seconds to avoid location by NATO electronic warfare aircraft, and the use of decoys and frequent movement of the missile battery to make it difficult for NATO suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) aircraft to locate and target it.
[10] The F-35C was designed for network-centric warfare, and gives the pilot enhanced situational awareness from its ability to communicate and process data obtained from onboard sensors and from other platforms.
Under NIFC-CA, F-35Cs will routinely be supported by Growlers and Super Hornets to jam and destroy enemy targets beyond the range of surface-to-air missiles.
Even with the possibility of cyber and electronic attack to hack or jam data-links, passive detection systems to locate aircraft based on their electronic emissions, and long-range anti-radiation missiles, the flexibility of "network-centric" cooperative engagement concepts allows additional systems and platforms to be "plugged or unplugged" as required, offering increased survivability and growth potential for new methods of countering countermeasures to be integrated into new or existing concepts.
[10] France has developed its own CEC system tenue de situation multi plateformes (TSMPF)[11] On 15 May 2019, the Indian Navy conducted the maiden cooperative engagement firing of the Barak 8.
The test demonstrated the ability of MRSAM to operate wide area air defense, distributing assets and control over different platforms and locations.