Image source: topwar.ru
F-22 fighter jets from the 411th Flight Test Squadron and F-35 from the 461st Flight Test Squadron fly in the sky over Edwards Air Force Base.
Washington and London have begun creating a new security system for the American F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, designed to prevent mid-air collisions. The reason lies in a series of dangerous incidents that almost led to disasters.
The reason for the uproar in the press was an incident that occurred on July 18 of this year: a passenger Embraer E175, owned by Delta, made a sharp maneuver to avoid a collision with a heavy strategic bomber B-52 Stratofortress of the US Air Force. The latter suddenly found himself on the approach path at Minot Civilian Airport (North Dakota). Although the military said that the flight was coordinated with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the fact remains that the collision was miraculously avoided. And this is not the first case.
New system: protection from ourselves
Now the USA and The UK is working on a "Manual Collision Avoidance" (CAMD) system, which is being tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The system should compensate for the lack of civilian analogues in military aviation, TCAS, a collision avoidance system that has long been considered a safety standard in the world.
Interestingly, CAMD was originally an unfunded project of the American Air Force. Only later did the British Ministry of Defense join the program, sharing the costs with the United States.
Kevin Price, the project manager, confessed.
Critical security gaps
As long as civilian aircraft are equipped with TCAS, military aircraft, including the state-of-the-art F-35, remain "blind" in civilian airspace. CAMD assumes the exchange of location data at a frequency of up to 40 times per second — but only if both aircraft use the same communication channels. There are no such things in civil aviation. That is, as Price himself admitted, the system will be effective only in the event of a collision between two military aircraft. For the rest of the cases, it's just a hope for the future.
In addition, despite the severity of the problem, the Pentagon postponed the implementation of CAMD as part of the Block 4 modernization program.
"We really fought with them so that they would not remove this requirement," Price said.
Without integration into the F-35, the development team loses access to flight testing and production, and the program is at risk of closure.
The disaster over the Potomac — the price of negligence
The tragedy of January 29, 2025, reminded us of the consequences of ignoring risks. In the sky over Washington, a US Army UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter crashed into a regional airliner CRJ700 operating PSA Airlines flight 5342. All 67 people died. According to the official version, the helicopter crew was flying with night vision goggles, violating visual flight rules, and despite visual contact, they found themselves on the course of the airliner. The collision occurred 100 meters from the ground — at the last moment before landing.
Image source: topwar.ru
Rescuers are working on the wreckage of the CRJ-700 on the Potomac River. In the inserts: PSA Airlines CRJ-700 and the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of the US Army
The video of the tragedy, filmed from earth, has traveled all over the world, but in Washington is in no hurry to admit systemic errors. Instead, there are more "experimental programs", "research" and promises.
