Lockheed Martin Tests Networked Legion Pods to Sharpen F-16 Passive Targeting in Radar-Denied Airspace.

Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a networked Legion sensor configuration on two F-16 fighters that can generate more precise airborne targeting data without relying on active radar ranging, the company announced on September 16, 2026. The capability strengthens the F-16’s ability to detect, track, and engage threats in radar-denied or electronically contested airspace where conventional sensing may be degraded or too revealing.

During flight tests in Tucson, Arizona, the two aircraft exchanged Legion sensor data through a pre-production L3Harris HiveLink data link, improving track accuracy and enabling near-instantaneous ranging against multiple airborne targets. By combining passive sensing with rapid fighter-to-fighter data sharing, the approach could expand survivability and targeting options against sophisticated air defenses and electronic warfare threats.

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Lockheed Martin successfully linked Legion infrared sensor pods aboard two F-16 fighters, enabling faster and more accurate passive targeting without relying on active radar ranging (Picture Source: Lockheed Martin)

On September 16, 2026, Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a new networking configuration for its Legion sensor system aboard two F-16 fighters, advancing the aircraft’s ability to generate targeting information without relying on active radar ranging. During recent flight tests in Tucson, Arizona, the fighters exchanged Legion sensor data through a pre-production version of L3Harris’ HiveLink data link, improving track accuracy and enabling near-instantaneous ranging against multiple airborne targets. The development is particularly relevant to operations in radar-denied and electronically contested airspace, where maintaining alternative sensing and targeting paths can be critical. Lockheed Martin disclosed the successful tests on September 16 following work conducted with the U.S. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Test Center.

Two F-16s equipped with Legion systems flew from Morris Air National Guard Base with HiveLink integrated as a dedicated connection between the pods. According to Lockheed Martin, the systems successfully established the link in flight and increased track accuracy by combining information collected by the two sensors. The company says the networked configuration can establish near-instantaneous range to multiple targets, effectively providing aircrews with rapid “depth perception” that can help them distinguish and prioritize airborne contacts more quickly. The capability is also intended to reduce pilot workload, shorten engagement timelines and preserve aircraft bandwidth for other mission requirements.

The underlying concept is based on cooperative infrared sensing. Legion’s baseline configuration houses the IRST21 infrared search-and-track sensor and an advanced processor within a 16-inch-diameter pod, allowing it to detect and track air-to-air targets through their infrared signatures without illuminating them with radar energy. A single passive sensor can establish highly useful bearing and track information, but accurate ranging presents a more demanding problem. When geographically separated aircraft observe the same target from different angles, their measurements can be combined to refine its position and range. This principle is not new to Legion: in April 2022, an F-15C and F-16 exchanged IRST21 data through the pod’s earlier Advanced Datalink and passively triangulated a target without radar or another active ranging source. The U.S. Air Force had also completed a two-ship F-16 Legion datalink test in December 2021.

The significance of the latest Tucson tests lies less in inventing cooperative IRST ranging than in maturing it through a new HiveLink-based networking architecture. Earlier Legion work used dedicated datalink concepts including Tactical Targeting Network Technology, while the 2026 configuration introduces L3Harris’ pre-production HiveLink system. L3Harris describes HiveLink as a software-defined, high-assurance data link incorporating mesh networking, multiple waveform support and both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight connectivity. Its architecture is designed to form and repair network paths dynamically and to support integration across airborne, unmanned and ground platforms. That opens a potential path toward larger distributed sensor networks rather than limiting Legion data exchange to pairs of fighters, although the September demonstration itself confirmed only connectivity between the two F-16-mounted systems.

There is also an important distinction between passive sensing and complete electromagnetic silence. Legion itself does not need to transmit radar energy toward an aircraft in order to detect it, but networking two pods through a data link still involves communications transmissions. The latest announcement demonstrates radar-independent sensing and ranging rather than an entirely emission-free targeting architecture. Lockheed Martin and L3Harris have not publicly disclosed the specific HiveLink waveform used during the Tucson flights, the separation between the aircraft, data-link latency, communications range or the electronic-protection characteristics exercised during the tests. Similarly, no quantitative figure was released for the improvement in track accuracy. This leaves the exact operational performance margin of the new configuration undisclosed even as the demonstration establishes that the two systems could successfully exchange and exploit their sensor data.

For the F-16, the podded architecture is particularly significant because it provides an additional sensing path without requiring an internally installed IRST. Lockheed Martin designed Legion around a common interface and modular architecture that can accommodate additional sensors and payloads while limiting modifications to the host aircraft. Previous U.S. Air Force testing similarly highlighted the ability to move the system across aircraft types with minimal impact on core aircraft software. Legion should be viewed as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, the F-16’s radar: an AESA radar and IRST exploit different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, giving aircrews alternative and potentially complementary ways to detect and track threats depending on the tactical and electronic environment. Lockheed Martin says Legion is now fielded and in production for the U.S. Air Force in podded form, with interoperability across F-15 and F-16 platforms and potential transportability to additional fighter, non-fighter and unmanned aircraft.

Lockheed Martin is continuing F-16 flight testing under an Air National Guard contract to validate performance, transportability and interoperability. Planned follow-on work includes software-defined radios, multi-waveform gateways and support for manned-unmanned teaming, indicating that the longer-term objective extends beyond a two-aircraft IRST pairing. At the same time, several important details remain undisclosed: Lockheed Martin has not identified the number or type of targets involved in the recent flights, engagement distances, aircraft spacing, environmental conditions, whether electronic attack was actively imposed, whether beyond-line-of-sight networking was exercised or whether the resulting engagement solutions were passed directly into an F-16 weapon-employment chain. No weapon launch was announced as part of the September demonstration.

The Tucson demonstration further matures Legion as a distributed passive targeting architecture rather than marking the beginning of pod-to-pod IRST networking. What changes in the latest test is the introduction of HiveLink and the effort to make cooperative ranging faster, more accurate and more adaptable to a wider networked force. For the F-16, that could provide aircrews with another way to build precise awareness of airborne threats while reducing dependence on active radar ranging in contested environments. The larger implication is the prospect of connecting fighters, unmanned aircraft and other sensor platforms into cooperative infrared networks in which no single aircraft has to generate the entire targeting picture alone. How far that concept can be scaled, and how resilient it remains under operational electronic attack, will depend on follow-on testing and performance data that Lockheed Martin has not yet released.

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Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.