I think my confusion here is the use of a moniker to mean all sorts of different things which aren't related of necessity. It makes discussion difficult because it seems to me that every debate leads eventually to "5 is a bigger number than 4".
Just for the sake of it I found this article about SAAB's Wiscom thing which is based on their datalink. I'm not saying anything about it being great or amazing - just posting it as evidence that ideas about fusing data and all that stuff are not as unique to stealthy planes as it might seem to an outsider like me.
http://aviationweek.com/awin/saab-ta...er-development
One part of the Wiscom concept is the idea of a “flexible antenna pool” in which all aircraft in a flight share sensor and target data automatically. Another is “silent swarm ingress” where a flight enters combat in a widely dispersed pattern, with primary sensors being infrared search and track (IRST), active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars operating in passive mode, and electronic surveillance measures (ESM).
Under Wiscom, AESA transmissions are restricted and “random”—that is, the aircraft in a flight will transmit at different times, making it difficult to track them by emissions. Swedish engineers have noted that data-linked radars can share plots—not just tracks—and take simultaneous range-rate measurements, allowing two radars to determine a target's velocity almost instantly. Finally, Saab envisages the use of the high-energy MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile to engage from side and rear aspects where targets are less likely to detect the threat.