One of the reasons that this is of interest is that the current version of the F-22 does not have a good data path out. It was designed to operate nearly autonomously over Warsaw Pact integrated air-defense networks, so the idea is that data would go in, but not out.

This hack to the radar fixes this.

F-22 superjets could act as flying Wi-Fi hotspots
By Lewis Page
Published Tuesday 19th June 2007 15:20 GMT

US defence contractors have carried out the first flight tests in which America’s latest cutting-edge fighter targeting radars have been put to novel use – as high-capacity wireless datalinks. This crafty use of existing hardware has the potential to ease military bandwidth bottlenecks, and could offer a chance for expensive superfighters to be of use even in the absence of serious aerial opposition.

The most expensive Wi-Fi hotspot in the world?

The latest generation of US military aircraft carry so-called Active Electronically Scanned Array* (AESA) radars, which are made up of many separate transmit-receive elements. AESA radars have long been heralded as miraculous multi-tasking kit, capable of acting as electronic-warfare scanners, jammers, or even electromagnetic weapons capable of frying enemy circuitry from afar.

There have also been ground trials in which the radar from America’s ultra-advanced, hyper-expensive F-22 “Raptor” stealth superfighter has been used as a kind of Wi-Fi card on steroids, able to transmit data at a blistering 548 Mbit/sec and receive it at Gigabit speed.

Thales can’t be the only people offering this sort of capability.

I imagine that the British or Germans have something similar, and that there was a similar system that dates back to the USSR.

Thales Develops LX16 Tactical Data Link for Non-NATO Countries

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/18/2007, page 114

Joris Janssen Lok
Paris

Link 16-equivalent data link gives nations option for tactical network

Printed headline: Non-NATO Network

Thales is proposing a tactical data link that gives nations not currently allowed to use the NATO-standard Link 16 the option to acquire a similar capability, which Thales calls LX16.

At least one Asian country is in negotiations to equip all of its armed forces (air, land and maritime) with LX16, say company sources, while declining to identify the customer.

Thales is also receiving “strong interest” in LX16 from several other nations as well as from “aircraft manufacturers who are not in NATO countries and who sell outside NATO.”

“Non-NATO air customers often love to get a Link 16 capability, but they can’t–so we developed an equivalent tactical data link that uses the same message set, grammar and vocabulary,” says Patrice Caine, vice president for communications, navigation and identification activities in Thales Land & Joint Systems.

Once installed, the equipment behind LX16 can be modified “virtually overnight” to support Link 16 proper, Caine suggests. Such an upgrade could be considered if an LX16 user becomes eligible to join the Link 16 user community–for example, when there’s a need to participate in Link 16 networks during coalition operations.

The change from an LX16 to a Link 16 configuration can be achieved by adding a MIDS-LVT (Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminal) to each aircraft, ship or land asset that needs to participate in the Link 16 network.

Thales is also working to make LX16 interoperable with Link 16 without having to add MIDS-LVT terminals to all platforms. That would be a gateway system that allows the LX16 network to interface with Link 16.

…

While Link 16 operates in the 960-1215-MHz. frequency range (L-band), Thales’s LX16 operates at 300-600 MHz.

The lower frequency implies that there would be lower throughput, but I’m not up on radio Frequency stuff, so I’m not sure how much.