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.