Lockheed Martin has flown its Legion sensor system with a new pod-to-pod data link in tests involving two F-16s in Tucson, Arizona. The flights paired Legion pods with a pre-production version of L3Harris’ HiveLink system and were supported by the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve Test Center. The company is testing the capability on F-16s under an Air National Guard contract to validate performance, transportability and interoperability.
The flight trials linked the pods in the air and improved track accuracy by sharing sensor data between aircraft. Lockheed Martin said the setup helps pilots make faster targeting decisions and improves situational awareness in radar-denied and contested environments. The system also provides near-instant range information on multiple airborne targets, which the company describes as a form of depth perception for prioritising contacts.
Legion is already fielded and in production for the US Air Force, and the new data-link integration is intended to widen interoperability across fighter aircraft and potentially other platforms, including unmanned systems. Lockheed Martin described the test activity as a series of recent flights, without giving a more detailed timeline or naming the specific operating unit.