Ukrainian Fighter Jets "Using iPads" To Control Western Weapons
https://www.twz.com/air/ukrainian-fighter-jets-using-ipads-to-control-western-weapons
The Ukrainian Air Force is using iPads, or similar tablets in the cockpits of its Soviet-era jets to enable rapid integration of modern Western air-to-ground weapons something that TWZ predicted back in 2022. This has been confirmed by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William LaPlante. While many questions remain about the tablet and how it exactly works, theres now footage showing it fitted in cockpits during combat (or at least live-fire training) missions.
LaPlante was speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank's annual Global Security Forum yesterday, April 24, 2024. When asked to provide examples of successful programs that rapidly developed capabilities and got them into the hands of the military, one example he chose was the tablets in Ukrainian fighter cockpits:
Theres also a series of
we call it air-to-ground, its what we call it euphemistically
think about the aircraft that the Ukrainians have, and not even the F-16s, but they have a lot of the Russian and Soviet-era aircraft. Working with the Ukrainians, weve been able to take many Western weapons and get them to work on their aircraft where its basically controlled by an iPad by the pilot. And theyre flying it in conflict like a week after we get it to him.
LaPlante didnt provide further details, but its noteworthy that a video recently released by the Ukrainian Air Force shows a Su-27 Flanker fitted with exactly this type of system possibly an iPad, but perhaps also another kind of commercially available tablet.
*snip*