1) Electronic attack role next upgrade for Raptor radar
2) RAF Tornado given Litening capability
3)
4) Air space defense system now shielding CONUS, AF says
5) AF must weigh capability of F-22 ISR vs. stealth benefit
6) Air Force to elevate status of Cyberspace Command
7) US Navy's SLAM-ER tests to turn corner
8) JFCOM, Northrop Grumman to work cooperatively on ISR concepts
9) C5ISR: Another 'C' for the service at Sea
1) Electronic attack role next upgrade for Raptor radar
Meanwhile, AESA work will enable USAF fighter to share ISR data with other platforms
Flight International 02/27/2007
Author: Graham Warwick
Lockheed Martin has begun work on enabling the US Air Force's F-22A Raptor to use its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar as a wideband datalink, allowing the stealthy fighter to share intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sensor information with other platforms.
The
Raytheon says its AESA upgrade for the Boeing F-15 has already demonstrated in-band electronic attack capability in USAF flight tests, and the company has demonstrated the wideband ISR datalink using its own testbed aircraft. Raytheon is under contract to develop the radar common datalink (R-CDL) standard, providing 274Mb/s bandwidth and allowing the AESA to send and receive synthetic-aperture radar images.
Lockheed has received a $9.7 million US Air Force Laboratory contract to demonstrate non-traditional ISR capability and operating concepts for the F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter using AESA and R-CDL. Laboratory and flight tests are expected to lead to an operational demonstration during an annual Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment. The effort is to be completed by early 2012.
Larry Lawson, Lockheed F-22 program manager, says: "We are in the early stages." Boeing director F-18 program integration Kory Mathews says F/A-18E/F wideband ISR datalink capability is not yet planned, but the Super Hornet will be first to get an in-band electronic attack capability.
The USAF, meanwhile, has included both F-15C/D and F-15E AESA radar upgrades in its FY2008 budget request. The service plans to retrofit 178 F-15C/Ds with Raytheon's APG-63(V)3 AESA, and the company will offer the improved APG-63(V)4 for the F-15E upgrade to begin in FY2010.
Although the (V)3 is primarily an air-to-air radar, Raytheon says it is capable of being upgraded via software to provide in-band electronic attack and wideband ISR datalink capabilities. The air-to-air/air-to-ground (V)4, meanwhile, will use the higher-throughput "back end" from the Super Hornet's APG-79.
2) RAF Tornado given Litening capability
Aviation Week & Space Technology 02/26/2007
Author: Douglas Barrie
The Tornado GR4 forms the offensive cornerstone of the 901 Expeditionary Air Wing at Al Udeid. While the Harrier force in
Average sortie time for the aircraft--which operate in pairs--is between 6-8 hr., says Wing Commander Terry Jones, lead officer for the Tornado detachment. The aircraft are on task for "3-4 hr." and can be called on to operate anywhere in
The aircraft deployed are drawn from the so-called "Diamond fleet" of GR4s that are fitted with the appropriate secure communications and identification friend or foe. This in itself poses concerns regarding sustainability and scheduling of airframe life hours across the GR4 fleet. The deployed aircraft are allocated a fleet total at present of 660 hr. a month, although toward the end of last year this had been "surged" to 730 hr. This level of utilization cannot, however, be supported indefinitely.
The GR4 is being widely employed as an intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform using both the Digital Joint Reconnaissance Pod (DJRP) and the Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator (Tiald). The GR4 has been recently flight cleared to carry broader mixed loads that include the Tiald, DJRP and Enhanced Paveway II, along with dual-mode guided bombs and other ordnance, to provide the aircraft with greater operational flexibility.
Jones notes that in the so-called Non-Traditional-ISR role the aircraft is utilized for counter-mortar, -rocket and -improvised explosive device operations. An imagery analysis cell at the air base studies the pictures from the DJRP. Convoy protection and over-watch missions are also being flown. A single sortie may include several tasks, such as taking imagery of buildings or areas of interest.
The aircrew plan the ingress and egress routes to the operational area to cover points of interest, for example to provide the opportunity to gather imagery of buildings thought to be associated with insurgent forces.
The Selex Tiald pod, although still useful, is showing its age. "It was designed originally to target bunkers, not try to spot a man on a horse with a gun," suggests one air force officer. Image resolution reflects the age of the basic design.
To improve this capability the RAF is integrating the Rafael Litening III on the GR4 under an urgent operational requirement. The introduction of this laser designator and targeting pod will provide the GR4 with the ability to gather significantly higher quality imagery and substantially increased standoff ranges. The aircraft may also be fitted with the L3 Rover downlink. This would allow Litening imagery from the aircraft to be downloaded to a Rover-equipped laptop-computer in near-real time. The possible acquisition of a low-collateral-damage weapon for the GR4 is still of interest. Ultimately, Litening will improve targeting capability for the GR4 in-theater as well as heighten situational awareness for troops on the ground.
The Tornado can also be tasked with a "show of presence or force." In the
3)
Defense Daily 03/01/2007
The total value of the sale, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $421 million, DSCA said.
Along with the 218 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAMs, and the 235 AGM-65G2 Maverick missiles, Taiwan is looking to buy AMRAAM missiles-Instrumented, AMRAAM Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM), 48 LAU-129A Launchers, four TGM-65G Maverick Training Missiles, aircraft modification and integration, spares and repair parts, support and test equipment, maintenance and pilot training, software support, publications and technical documents, DSCA added.
The sale of AMRAAM and Maverick missiles to
4) Air space defense system now shielding CONUS, AF says
- Michael Fabey - Aerospace Daily & Defense Report 03/14/2007
The Air Force's proposed $60 million national airspace defense system, meant to marry Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NORAD radars with Air Force monitoring and defense capabilities, is now the shield for the continental United States (CONUS), the service announced March 13. The Air Force transitioned the defense system - called Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) - to CONUS operations Feb. 16.
"We passed an important milestone," Maj. Mark Pearson said during a March 13 briefing.
Essentially, BCS is meant to help prevent the same type of terrorist attacks as those that took place Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers flew civilian jetliners into the Pentagon and
As a result, Air Force officials say, fighter planes could not arrive quickly enough to intercept the hijacked planes. The Air Force quickly bought and fielded an interim system, called the
NORAD Contingency Suite (NCS). BCS-F prime contractor Thales Raytheon Systems (TRS) submitted the winning bid for the system and started work in 2003. The Air Force and NORAD tacked on
additional requirements to the system and Air Combat Command said it was operationally capable in October to handle
The Air Force blended the additional requirements for BCS-F into another development spiral.
When it became operationally capable, BCS-F also started to serve as the command-and-control (C2) system for the oceans surrounding the continental
On Feb. 16, that control expanded, and BCS-F became the primary C2 source over inland CONUS as well.
The interim NCS system still augments some of the coverage in the National Capital Region, which has unique radar systems, because some of the BCS-F interfaces needed for that transition won't be fielded until the next spiral, Maj. Pearson said.
5) AF must weigh capability of F-22 ISR vs. stealth benefit
- Michael Fabey - Aerospace Daily & Defense Report 03/01/2007
Air Force leaders still hope to electronically transmit data and other information from the F-22 to other platforms. But the concern is how to do that without cutting into the Raptor's stealthy characteristics. "I know there is movement afoot to get data we have to other aircraft," said Col. Tom Bergeson, the air expeditionary wing commander for the recent Red Flag exercises that tested the Raptor's capabilities.
"We have a lot of data they'd like to see," he said Feb. 27. "But we also like to remain low observable. The best way now to get that off board is the radio." One of the main selling points for the F-22 since its inception has been the Raptor's stealthy attributes -- its ability to remain nearly invisible to certain types of radar.
As the Air Force started to test the aircraft and determine its operational utility, leaders also started to tout its ability to collect all types of data and information in the battlespace to be a platform for intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). But while the F-22 could collect the data and information in exquisite detail, it could not send that information readily to other aircraft. Raptor instructors at Tyndall Air Force Base said during the fall that the inability to transmit that data, to "off board" it, was proving frustrating.
In response, Air Combat Commander Gen. Ronald Keys said the Air Force was looking for waveforms to better connect the Raptor to the other aircraft to offboard the data. On Feb. 16, Gen. Michael Peterson, Air Force chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer, said the service had settled on
Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) to do the job. TTNT is an Internet Protocol (IP) based, high-speed, dynamic ad hoc network designed to enable the U.S. military to quickly target moving and
time-critical targets. It has high throughput and low latency and enables net-centric sensor technologies to correlate information among multiple platforms, precisely locating time-critical targets.
But Col. Bergeson said care has to be taken to make sure that those signals do not impinge on the Raptor's stealthy nature. "It's not as simple as it might sound," he said.
6) Air Force to elevate status of Cyberspace Command
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report 03/22/2007
The U.S. Air Force plans to give its fledgling Cyberspace Command "major command status," possibly as early as late summer 2007, the service's top officials told Congress March 21.
The command's elevation reflects the importance that Air Force leaders attach to cyberspace as a battlefield and terrorist sanctuary -- as well as a communications and intelligence-sharing venue.
"We are looking at sometime soon to move [cyber command] into a major command status the same as Air Mobility Command or Air Force Space Command, to be able to address these issues," Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force Chief of Staff, told the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee.
Because 80 percent of U.S. commerce goes through the Internet, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said, "I think the time will come when we need to scale ourselves up to make sure we are adequate to protect them."
Wynne designated the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., as the home of Cyberspace Command in November 2006. And the commander, Lt. Gen. Robert
Elder, said he expected the organization to reach operational capability by 2009
Moseley said he did not know where Cyberspace Command would be located. "Eighth Air Force is at Barksdale in Shreveport, La. That's a likely place but I don't know yet," Moseley said. "As we work our way through this, as you build a staff and you build the infrastructure for a major command, you've got to go out and look and then there'll be the requirements for an environmental impact statement."
Additional hurdles include manpower and money, he said. "We're still a bit in the baby steps -- all of us, the Army, Navy, NSA [National Security Agency] -- on how to orchestrate this. It is a big issue for us," Moseley said. Wynne noted in a March 19 speech that many Air Force personnel work at U.S. national security agencies.
7) US Navy's SLAM-ER tests to turn corner
Flight International 04/03/2007
Author: Guy Norris
Forthcoming tests of Boeing's AGM-84H SLAM-ER will check the missile's ability to track and engage a moving ground target turning through 90 degrees. The work will form part of US Navy operational tests of a newly developed capability to allow targeting by a third party.
Tests carried out last year at the US Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, California, demonstrated the system's ability to track and hit moving targets using targeting data from a littoral surveillance radar system (LSRS)-equipped Lockheed Martin P-3, and from the US Air Force's Northrop Grumman E-8 JSTARS surveillance aircraft.
Released from a Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet, the weapon was handed off to a second F/A-18 carrying an AWW-13 datalink pod. The SLAM-ER tracked its target using updated data relayed from the LSRS via Link 16 datalink to the AWW-13, plus last-minute manual guidance inputs from the aircrew.
Targets included mocked-up surface-to-surface and air-defence missile launchers driven by remote control along a 11.3km (7 mile) dirt road at 20mph (32km/h). The initial phase included two live drop tests, 30 ground and 35 captive-carry tests, nine of which were performed using LSRS or JSTARS. The next phase will check the system's ability to track a launcher around a 90 degree turn in the road.
Despite good tracking updates, the missiles would have missed their targets in some cases but for last-minute crew intervention, the USN test team told the Society of Experimental Test Pilots meeting in San Diego, California.
8) JFCOM, Northrop Grumman to work cooperatively on ISR concepts
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report 04/05/2007
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and Northrop Grumman have made a three-year cooperative research agreement aimed at identifying ways of shortening the time it takes to collect and distribute intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information. Northrop Grumman will offer up its Cyber Warfare Integration Network (CWIN), which can generate a virtual battlefield for
running simulations.
JFCOM experts will run operational scenarios in the CWIN, performing both virtual and "human in the loop" exercises, Northrop Grumman said. The team will focus on integrating different types of sensor platforms, such as radar/infrared or airborne/space-based, into existing and future ISR architectures.
9) C5ISR: Another 'C' for the service at Sea
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report 04/09/2007
C5ISR?: Now that everyone's become used to the term "C4ISR" -
command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - Delores Etter, U.S. Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, wants to change it.
The "C" she'd like to add would be for combat systems, which have started to become their own entity and deserve their own development and operational focus, she says.
