Thank you for that question.
Data link is indeed an interesting character. When I flew the F-18, one of the challenges we had was collating all the information, integrating it all together, and building what we called situational awareness in our mind in order to understand the tactical situation. The value of the data link system that we put on the F-18 is that all this information is integrated for us, and we're able to see the depiction of it.
The challenge we have with the data link on our current aircraft and other aircraft of that nature comes from the type of data link that it is. It's called omnidirectional. It transmits in all directions and it transmits with a constant power. In the case of certain threats against which we would fly, we would actually have to turn off the data link in exactly the timeframe when we would need it most: when we are trying to do the final attack on the target.
When you move into fifth generation and the nature of data link available there, the fifth-generation aircraft has sufficient knowledge in the aircraft to know exactly where the next aircraft in the chain is, and it directs the information and the data link only to that aircraft and only with sufficient power to transmit it to that next aircraft. In this way, the data link in a fifth-generation F-35 is considered high capability, high capacity, and secure, and that is unique to fifth generation. That allows the use of data link for all scenarios.