New Atlas:
In a demonstration of how future wars will be fought as much in cyberspace as on the battlefield, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the Missile Defense Agency, and the US Air Force connected an F-35, U-2 ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and a multi-domain ground station via data links as part of a missile defense exercise called Project Riot. The purpose was to show how different platforms with different levels of cybersecurity can network together to respond to threats within seconds.
It wasn’t so long ago that a computerized military base meant there was an Apple II in the accounts office. But today, advanced digital systems, global data networks, and artificial intelligence are rapidly changing the face of combat for the major powers as streams of data become as important as missiles, with ships, aircraft, command centers, and even individual soldiers becoming increasingly connected to act as a single war-fighting entity.
