In this month’s issue:
1) Nonkinetic weapons arm
2) Bandwidth, Not Unmanned Aircraft, Needs Attention, General Says
3) Air Force Training UAE to Operate AOC
4) F/A-18E/F To Get New Air Combat Sensor
5) Hot War Seen From Cool `Crow's Nest'
6) Air operations center opens at Tyndall
7) Air Force Unveils First-Ever CONUS "WARFIGHTING" CAOC
8) Boeing-Lockheed Martin Conduct First SDB II Flight Test
9) AESA comm capabilities link demonstrated
1) Nonkinetic weapons arm
Aviation Week & Space Technology 06/18/2007
Author: David A. Fulghum
Direct military action could become a diminishing part of the next-generation,
In fact,
"If I'm asked to come up with a solution to a military event, I'm going to bring all forces to bear," says Lt. Gen. Chip Utterback, 13th Air Force commander. "That may include bringing in my friends from Bank of America to help find an innovative solution to diverting the enemy, [that does not include] a blockade or restriction on sales." The basic idea is to offer a way to defuse the situation and provide a face-saving off-ramp for a potential adversary.
"A banking system is vulnerable to network attack," he says. "If you could bring economic pressure to bear--I'm talking about shutting it down--in a disciplined, organized and integrated fashion, just like we build a [bombing] campaign, it could have as much impact as B-52s and F-22s."
The lure and threat of cyberwarfare has also led to an information operations squadron being switched earlier this year from Air Combat Command to Pacaf's Maj. Richard Bong Air and Space Operations Center (AOC), says its commander, Col. Mike Boera.
"We [are putting] an IO cell on the floor in the AOC so that they bring their skills directly to the fight," Boera says.
Classification has often kept intelligence from getting to warfighters that need it or need cyber-weapons employed in their behalf. But Boera thinks the walls are falling.
"It's still difficult, but progress has been made so that the players that need the capabilities know they're there," he says. "There's more conduits [into the IO world] than there used to be." Division chiefs that have to include nonkinetic capabilities in the air tasking order are informed, as are key members of the master attack planning and strategy teams that assemble plans of action. These plans are "briefed here, fully vetted and thought through," he says.
Many of the tools for such operations --cyber-, nonkinetic and nonlethal weapons--have great contemporary value because they don't blow up anything or kill bystanders. Cyberwarfare can range from electronic attack to invading computers to communicating to entire populations.
But there is a big, worrisome unknown about them.
"There are no rules of engagement and no legal basis from what can be done through electronic means," Utterback says. "Cyber war is incredibly important, but I'm going to sit down with my lawyers and talk about it."
He also intends working with his civilian contacts to determine how to avoid damaging critical functions unintentionally, and with his military specialists to think through how to think through battle damage assessment when nothing visible changes.
"You don't want to go after a target and by accident take down respirators in a hospital, the circuits for tele-surgery or a railroad system," Utterback says.
In the cyber world,
The potential for damage was illustrated this spring when Russian spammers buried
Pacaf's 613th AOC, a critical communication and planning node for any regional military or natural emergency, is preparing for such attacks. It also has taken on the onerous task of sorting out what
"Our strategy team has taken on the challenge of ops assessment across the spectrum of operations," Boera says, including computer network, high-power microwave, nuclear electromagnetic pulse and other types of attack. "It's hard to come up with true, effects-based assessments of how we are doing in attack and defense. It's a work in progress. I look at it every week and put out an air ops directive that looks at how we've done."
If the AOC experiences a computer network attack, the staff has honed its ability to wipe programs and replace them within seconds, Boera says. There is a core staff of about 370 people that can expand to more than 1,000 personnel handling at least 1,300 sorties and possibly 2,500 sorties per day.
"Logic tells you that the more intrusive you become in electronic warfare, the more battle damage assessment you have to do," Utterback says. "Electronic attack [EA] is a realistic tactical tool with strategic implications. I think we'd be crazy not to look at high-power microwave capability both from an offensive and defensive sense. But, second and third order effects happen at the speed of light. You have to think them through before you pull the trigger. I'm not suggesting a cautious approach to EA, but rather a deliberate and disciplined effort with a strategic focus."
They also have a plan for the possibility that despite their efforts, an AOC somewhere in the region is disabled by earthquake, tsunami or missile attack. Plans are that each AOC has a partner somewhere in the
"We've just worked through a cooperative effort, using network-centric capabilities, to publish the air tasking order for another theater--
2) Bandwidth, Not Unmanned Aircraft, Needs Attention, General Says
Defense Daily 06/05/2007
Author: Ann Roosevelt
While the services discuss who buys and operates unmanned aerial systems (UAS), it's the information that must reach those who need it that matters most, according to a top Army general.
"I'm more concerned about bandwidth," Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody told reporters last month. "Nobody's working that. Bandwidth is not controlled by anybody."
It's not the aircraft, but the sensors, Cody said. The sensors produce the flow of data or real-time video combat troops on the ground can immediately use as well as information analysts use to compile intelligence products and add to databases for future reference that are vital to prosecuting the war on terror.
Meanwhile, the Joint Requirement Oversight Council is discussing a wide variety of UAS issues, Cody said.
While the services disagree on UAS, "there's room for compromise," Cody said. "I think the only time we're going to have a problem is when the war is off."
Today, all the services have their own assets, and share information, and soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines have been able to work together doing the job in combat, he said. "If it's good enough for combat, it's good enough for everybody else."
A March 5 memo from the Air Force Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, and military service chiefs concerned designating the Air Force as executive agent for medium- and high-altitude UAS.
The Air Force believes appointing an executive agent for medium- and high-altitude UASs would achieve efficiencies in acquisition and enhance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) interoperability by providing common architectures for data links and radios. Further, the Air Force contends that to make the best use of limited operational resources, all medium- and high-altitude UAVs assigned to Operation Iraqi Freedom, regardless of service, should be available to the Coalition Forces Air Component Commander for tasking to the highest operational priority at any given time.
At a mid-April hearing airing UAS service disagreements before the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) subcommittee on Air and Land Forces, the Army contended, among other things, that giving up the operational control of any of its UASs would offer more risk to tactical commanders.
Meanwhile, the House has its own ideas about UAS acquisition management and joint operations, expressed in its version of the FY '08 Defense Authorization Bill.
"The issue has not been adequately addressed for the past two years, potentially resulting in waste of limited resources and inefficient operational use of high value, limited UAS assets," the HASC report accompanying the bill said.
Further, the report said there might be potential benefits to a single service being given authorities and responsibilities as an executive agent to guide DoD's acquisition efforts "to include research, development, testing and evaluation activities; procurement; logistics; and training."
The UAS issue also would be addressed in a report required by the House-passed defense-authorization bill directing the Secretary of Defense to review and report on DoD roles and missions.
"The committee firmly believes that if the core competencies of the military services were clearly articulated and the requirements system were aligned with such competencies...that unintended duplication of effort, inoperability issues, and disagreements over authority for operational control of medium- and high-altitude UASs could be mitigated," the report said.
While awaiting that report, the bill directs the Secretary of Defense to present by March 1 a review of UAS-related capabilities to determine if designating a service as DoD executive agent for UAS would be the best way to go. The review also must include "a clear, objective assessment" of operational risk to each military service as a result of any changes.
However, until the reports are presented, nothing prevents the Secretary of Defense from appointing an Executive Agent for medium- and high-altitude unmanned aerial systems pending the outcome of the reports required by this bill and report on roles and missions.
3) Air Force Training UAE to Operate AOC
Inside the Air Force 06/15/2007
An Air Force team is helping train its counterparts in the
Since April, an Air Force-led team has trained the UAE airmen in air and space control systems and procedures, said Lt. Col. Don Finley, commander of the 705th Training Squadron.
About 200 students are enrolled in intermediate- and advanced-level classes, Finley said. When classes conclude in December, the top 20 or so students with the best English speaking skills will go through instructor training.
The UAE air force built a mini air and space operations center (AOC) in a theater arts-like building using modern computers, displays and communication equipment.
"We think they're trying to be the leader of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] in . . . command and control of air power," Finley said in a June 12 telephone interview from his offices at
"With their new airplanes and trying to learn the AOC business, we think they're well on their way to leading the GCC in that realm."
Founded in 1981, the GCC aims to "promote coordination between member states in all fields in order to achieve unity," according to the UAE ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Web site.
Member nations include the
The AOC students work on the same systems used by
The UAE air force flies a version of the F-16 fighter that is newer than Air Force Falcons.
In the first year of exercises, the service team conducted five different three-week long training events -- which serve as familiarization courses -- with the foreign airmen, Finley said. At the end of the training in September 2006, senior UAE air force leadership requested a higher level of training that could give them the potential to work in a coalition AOC.
Today the
"Hopefully we'll get them to the level where they'll be comfortable doing so" if they were permitted to work in a coalition facility, he said.
In addition to a coalition partnership, foreign airmen must speak English and have a security clearance in order to work in a
The UAE airmen are getting introductory training in space operations, he said. Students receive lectures and participate in a number of review of concept drills. Every test scenario is virtual, so no live aircraft are ever part of the exercises.
Mid-level and senior UAE officers "absolutely think this the greatest thing," Finley said.
The
While the AOC training is laying the foundations for the UAE air force, two other nations -- one in the Middle East and another in
4) F/A-18E/F To Get New Air Combat Sensor
Aviation Week & Space Technology 06/04/2007
Author: Andy Nativi
The U.S. Navy wants to upgrade its F/A-18E/Fs with an infrared search-and-track system out of concern that increasingly sophisticated electronic jamming systems could thwart the fighter's radar system, leaving pilots "blinded" in air-to-air combat.
Although the service has been upgrading the fighter's radar, and the latest version (the APG-79 with active electronically scanned array) should have enhanced ability to nullify hostile jamming, Navy officials are worried about the proliferation of X-band electronic countermeasures systems, which could degrade radar performance. In particular,
The addition of an infrared search-and-track system (IRST)--already standard on many Russian and western European fighters--would provide "spectral diversity" to the Navy. Even if the radar is jammed, a pilot would still be able to spot targets using the IR sensor. Also, the new subsystem could augment the radar by helping to detect hard-to-see targets, such as low- and slow-flying cruise missiles. Spotting such weapons can be a challenge for radars due to ground clutter, but missile engine exhaust plumes should be clearly visibly with the IRST.
The service is planning to field 150 of the new device on F/A-18E/F Block 2s in Fiscal Year 2012-13. Start-up development funds of $157.7 million are in the budget request now before Congress.
F/A-18 prime contractor Boeing has chosen Lockheed Martin to provide the sensor. A first prototype is set to be tested on a Super Hornet early next year through a company-funded risk reduction and capabilities demo effort. Enhanced versions of the AAS-42 electronics and optical units used on the F-14 (already available on
Boeing opted for a podded solution to save money. "Originally, we considered integrating the IRST into the aircraft fuselage, on the upper nose, or on the gunbay doors, but these solutions required significant structural, electrical and cooling system modifications and, in both cases, called for relocating existing antennas," says Chris D. Wedewer, Boeing's F/A-18E/F IRST program manager. "We also investigated the possibility of putting an IRST pod on the right fuselage station, opposite the fuselage-mounted Raytheon [Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared] targeting pod, but this option came with too many operational limitations in terms of field of view," in particular when weapons are being carried, he adds.
Those limitations drove the decision to place the sensor on the centerline weapon station, traditionally the spot for the fuel tank. Since a fuel tank has already been cleared for that station, using such a device to house the IRST was seen as the next logical step. The IRST will also function as a fuel tank, with a part of a pod still able to accommodate 330 gal., Wedewer notes.
The main change to the external fuel tank will be to the front section, which will house the IRST. A fixed window will be installed, as well as a ram-air intake to provide air flow for the environment control system. The demonstrator system will provide a large air "scoop," but the operational version is supposed to be more streamlined.
One design challenge will be adjusting for weight-distribution center-of-gravity constraints. With most of the IRST hardware in the nose-section of the pod, that will not be easy and designers, as a fallback, are considering simply adding ballast in the rear section of the device to restore equilibrium. On the aircraft side, the installation addition of the IRST should be a non-issue if the F/A-18E/Fs have Advanced Mission Computers; a software upgrade is required, though.
Keeping the cost down--to around $2.5 million per pod--creates operational drawbacks, however. There are field-of-regard restrictions with this installation, which is why fighters generally have IRSR mounted on the radome. Such an installation may come in the future, Wedewer says. On the other hand, using a pod provides flexibility because they can be distributed among fleet users as needed. Initially, pods will likely be deployed with squadrons still flying the older APG-73 radar, which provides fewer counter-countermeasures capabilities than the newer model.
Pilots will have a choice of opting for the radar to cue the IRST or vice versa. A key advantage of IRST is that it remains passive, and by cross-cueing the two sensors a pilot can minimize use of the radar to just before firing a missile.
The IRST uses a long-wave sensor, operating in the 8-12-micron range for maximum detection. The device will provide targeting quality data, although not an imaging capability.
5) Hot War Seen From Cool `Crow's Nest'
Author: Associated Press
A U.S. AIR BASE, Southwest Asia (AP) -- ''We have a downed helo.''
The words, in bright type, riveted Ken Edwards to one of his five computer screens.
From his raised platform -- a ''crow's nest'' at the heart of a cavernous operations room known as the ''Kay-Ock'' -- the Air Force lieutenant colonel glanced up at an electronic wall display. The towering map was alive with ghostly blue figures flitting through its skies, splotches of ''friendly'' troops spread blue among its towns, and now an urgent yellow rectangle, tagged ''TIC,'' troops in contact.
The ever-changing picture was the war in
It's the American way of war, 21st-century style: A life-or-death drama playing out among the palms and heat of the Iraqi countryside was being mirrored in the air-conditioned calm of this secretive military nerve center 800 miles away. By day's end -- Memorial Day 2007, when President Bush loomed large on another giant screen here eulogizing America's war dead -- 10 more would join what he called a ''new generation of heroes.''
Inside the CAOC -- the Combined Air and
''I hardly get a chance to see anything here,'' Edwards said over his shoulder when a reporter pointed out Bush, bigger than life on the TV screen above.
The Air Force had allowed a journalist a glimpse of the CAOC in action, on condition that no security-sensitive information be disclosed and the host country not be identified because of its sensitivity to being spotlighted as the site of a large
The vast, state-of-the-art CAOC opened just before the
Across the darkened floor, the faces of Air Force professionals in jumpsuits glowed in the light of computer monitors as they quietly did their jobs in 11 ''cells,'' from space satellite reconnaissance, to midair refueling, to search and rescue.
On the soaring wall above, a dozen outsized video screens displayed weather forecasts, video from Predator surveillance drones aloft in the war zones, even a view of
Edwards' Combat Operations unit is charged with real-time execution of the ATO drawn up by Combat Plans, a division whose informal symbol, a house of cards, denotes the fragility of each day's well-laid plans.
This day was no different.
At ''1421 Zulu,'' 6:21 p.m.
A two-man OH-58 scout helicopter from the Army's Task Force Lightning had ''put down for an unknown reason'' in
Edwards, 47, an A-10 fighter pilot from
Within minutes, one of the unmanned Predators, code-named ''Judge,'' flew into the area and began sending live video to a CAOC wall screen, and a small television at Edwards' elbow. But the drone, crisscrossing above date-palm groves and Diyala brushland, somehow couldn't find the crash site.
''A QRF is on its way!'' an Army liaison shouted up to Edwards.
Task Force Lightning had dispatched a QRF -- quick reaction force -- of six Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees, 24 soldiers. Unconfirmed word came that the OH-58 apparently was brought down by enemy fire. Then Edwards learned that the two crew had been lifted out by a rescue helicopter.
Still the pressure mounted, now to protect the undefended chopper and its arms and equipment from the insurgents.
''Sir, I need to take this Predator away!''
It was Edwards' senior intelligence aide, Maj. Jason Arnold, across the operations platform, reminding his boss that Judge had been pulled off a priority mission nearby tracking a ''high-value'' insurgent suspect. ''They're going to get antsy,'' said Arnold, 32, of Brighton, Mich.
Edwards wasn't moved. ''Damn, I'd really like to see if we can get eyes on that bird,'' he told Arnold. ''I don't want anyone messing with that aircraft.'' The Predator stayed in the hunt.
Then, at 7:16 p.m. Baghdad time, a new murmur arose on the floor: A TIC had developed in Afghanistan.
Intense but cool, the bespectacled Edwards turned to this new contingency, meticulously taking notes on a small pad while also checking back on the Diyala situation.
Minutes later, that situation turned worse. The CAOC was informed that the two helicopter crewmen were dead.
The Predator remained overhead, looking for signs of an ambush by roadside ''improvised explosive devices.''
''The important thing now is to make sure the guys coming in the QRF don't get hit by IEDs,'' Edwards said.
At this point, with the ground force reported less than 15 minutes from the chopper, and as a sandstorm built outside the CAOC in the desert day's dying heat, the reporter had to leave the crow's nest.
In the coming hours, at CAOC and in Baghdad, the full extent of the Diyala losses would emerge. The ground force was, indeed, hit by a roadside bomb or bombs, and six of its men were dead -- eight killed in all, out of 10 U.S. fatalities in Iraq this bloody Memorial Day. It was confirmed that the OH-58 had been shot out of the sky by insurgent fire.
''They did not want war, but they answered the call when it came,'' Bush said in his holiday speech, speaking of this new roll call of American dead.
In a war as unpopular at home as any America has waged, the world's greatest military and technological power has been fought to a standstill by Iraqis taping together makeshift bombs.
The military professionals at the CAOC and other critical posts, meanwhile, have used the four years of war to hone skills and perfect technology, to prepare for more -- in this case in a new, next-generation CAOC scheduled to open in 2008 on this low-profile base.
6) Air operations center opens at Tyndall
by Master Sgt. Linda E Welz
1st Air Force Public Affairs
6/4/2007 - TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- First Air Force celebrated the opening of the 601st Air and Space Operations Center here June 1 with a ceremony and tour of the 37,000-square-foot, $30 million combat center.
First Air Force, which also serves under the North American Aerospace Defense Command as the continental U.S. NORAD Region, provides air security and air sovereignty defense for the continental United States. Airmen at the new AOC plan, direct and assess air and space operations for NORAD and the United States Northern Command.
Conceived in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, the state-of-the-art AOC further enables 1st Air Force Airmen to protect America's airspace from attack as well as coordinate life-saving relief during natural and man-made disasters.
Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, and director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, served as the ceremony's keynote speaker. Her brother, Charles Burlingame III, a retired military aviator, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked by terrorists and flown into the Pentagon.
Ms. Burlingame said when times are difficult, Americans pull together as a nation toward a common goal.
"We are a country of achievers who dream big and fight hard to the end," said Ms. Burlingame. "We love to win (and) this spectacular new facility is here because people will never again let a tragedy like 9/11 happen; not on our watch."
As the newest combat center in the war on terrorism, the AOC operations floor employs a high-tech, two-story, 16-screen data wall in a media-based theater reminiscent of a space-age control center.
America's AOC employs the Theater Battle Management Core Systems that the joint forces air component commander uses to task and re-task theater assets by providing real-time feeds to pilots, navigators and air battle managers, allowing them to make better-informed decisions.
It also employs, through its Western and Northeastern Defense Sectors, the Battle Control System-Fixed program, to collect input from a network of radars to alert operators of airborne activity in continental U.S. air space. BCS-F provides key technology for the protection of the sovereign airspace over the continental U.S., Canada and surrounding waters.
Gen. Ronald Keys, the Air Combat Command commander, spoke of the many sorties, evacuations, rescues, firefighting missions and other missions that the command had completed since the 2001 terrorist attack.
He called the opening of the new AOC a red-letter day.
"We stand here on the first day of hurricane season knowing well that these Florida Air National Guard warriors are on the job," said General Keys.
"Americans can sleep well knowing their Air Force is awake and engaged here at America's AOC."
Maj. Gen. Hank Morrow, the 1st AF commander, called the AOC opening another step in the continuing mission to keep America safe.
"As we continue to hone America's technological edge we are able to strengthen our homeland defenses and bring military and civilian authorities together under on roof," he said. "Our team is an operational example of how our total force is engaged to keep our skies safe."
7) Air Force Unveils First-Ever CONUS "WARFIGHTING" CAOC
5/9/2007 - Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. --
Headquarters Twelfth Air Force and Air Forces Southern unveiled the U.S. Air Forces' newest Falconer, the Gen. James H. Doolittle Combined Air and Space Operations Center, today during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The CAOC is the "nerve-center" for the Combined or Joint Forces Air Component Commander (C/JFACC) and serves as the hub of all air and space activities during combat and humanitarian operations.
"This world-class facility will serve as the home of the only continuously operational Falconer in the continental United States -- we're proud to be facilitators of such an essential weapons system," said Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, commander, Twelfth Air Force and Air Forces Southern.
The 612th Air Operations Group runs the centers day-to-day activities including disseminating and monitoring air tasking orders for on going operation in Central and South America.
The CAOC serves as the air and space component to U.S. Southern Command. The command and control capabilities of the new facility provides the Southern Command commander a tremendous capability. Staffed by a total force of Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines it is responsible for maintaining the air picture for the Southern Command, in Central and South America, as well as Caribbean operations.
"This newest CAOC will provide a tremendous capability to plan, command, control, execute, and assess both U.S. and coalition air and space operations throughout Southern Command's area of operations," said Col. John Marselus, CAOC and 612th Air Operations Group commander.
The new facility is one of five "Falconer" CAOC weapons systems used to support geographic combatant commanders worldwide-- this designates an air operations center that is fully connected and capable of facilitating air, space and information operations worldwide. The other Falconer CAOCs are located in Southwest Asia, Europe, Korea and Hawaii. Each Air Operations Center has responsibility over a specified geographic location and mission.
"The Combined Air Operations Center weapons system at Davis-Monthan is designed to support operations worldwide," added General Seip. "This CAOC is up and running helping to execute operations in the US Southern Command region, but we're ready for any contingency."
8) Boeing-Lockheed Martin Conduct First SDB II Flight Test
Defense Daily 06/08/2007
Author: Michael Sirak
Boeing [BA] and teammate Lockheed Martin [LMT] late last month successfully completed the first flight of the Small Diameter Bomb Increment II (SDB II) system that they are offering to the Air Force as a means of attacking moving targets, the Chicago-based company announced on Wednesday.
The team is competing against a Raytheon [RTN]-led consortium for the rights to supply the SDB II system, a winged, 250-pound-class, all-weather, air- launched weapon, which is envisioned for fielding around the middle of next decade. The Air Force expects to choose the winning design by late 2009.
The free flight of the Boeing-Lockheed Martin design took place on May 22 at Eglin AFB, Fla., after successful completion of ground tests and captive-carry flights there, Boeing said. An Air Force F-15E fighter aircraft released the bomb, which thereupon opened its control fins and wings and flew its planned mission, the company said.
Boeing said the flight test demonstrated the compatibility of the SDB II with the BRU-61 pneumatic carriage system, which was originally developed for the now-operational first increment of the SDB (SDB I) that the company builds. The test also showed the compatibility with the SDB logistics system and the SBD I air vehicle and autopilot design, the company said.
"As we expected, our SDB II air vehicle and flight control system performance is excellent for the moving target version of SDB," Dan Jaspering, director of Direct Attack Weapons at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, said of the flight test in the company's June 6 statement. "This allows us to focus on systems integration of Lockheed Martin's multi-mode seeker and our network data link system for the remainder of the reduction phase of the competition."
Raytheon told Defense Daily that it continues to work closely with the Air Force to provide "the best SDB II possible," but did not divulge if it has already flight tested its design or when it plans to do that.
"We are confident that we are executing very well to our SDB II development plan in all key areas: system performance and reliability, air vehicle, multi-mode seeker, software and total systems integration," a company spokesman said.
The SDB I has been operational since last October on the F-15E and has been used in combat in Iraq. The bomb, which the Air Force designates the GBU-39, is designed to attack fixed and stationary relocatable targets with great accuracy in all weather and day or night. Its comparative small size allows a single aircraft to carry more munitions on a sortie and strike many more targets than is possible when carrying larger conventional bombs like Boeing's 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition.
The Air Force wants the SDB II to build upon the first increment by adding a terminal seeker and datalink so that the weapon can be employed against moving objects on land and at sea from standoff ranges. Originally Boeing won the winner-take-all rights to build SDB I and SDB II when the Air Force chose it over Lockheed Martin in the original SDB competition in 2003. But after the illegal activities of former senior Air Force procurement officer Darleen Druyun came to light, the service agreed to recompete the SDB II in response to a successful protest by Lockheed Martin with the Government Accountability Office.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin then joined forces on the SDB II. Last April, the Air Force awarded risk-reduction contracts to the Boeing-Lockheed Martin and Raytheon teams to mature their respective designs until the downselect (Defense Daily, April 18, 2006 and May 4, 2006).
Boeing leads the partnership with Lockheed Martin, supplying the air vehicle, which is a derivative of the SDB I airframe, and the bomb's datalink. Lockheed Martin provides the multi-mode seeker for terminal guidance.
Randy Bigum, vice president of Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said a system that can strike moving targets in all weather from standoff distances is a much-needed capability.
"We will enhance the capability of Boeing's proven SDB I system with the addition of our advanced multi-mode seeker, resulting in the best possible SDB II system," he said.
9) AESA comm capabilities link demonstrated
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report 06/14/2007
Northrop Grumman Corp., L-3 Communications and Lockheed Martin Corp. have successfully completed the first in-flight communications link with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, Northrop announced June 13.
"We took our targeting radar and turned it into a "talking" radar by enabling it to transmit and receive unprecedented amounts of information," said Teri Marconi, vice president of Northrop Grumman's combat avionics business unit. The Air Force has been promoting the radar as a possible communications sensor. The Radar Common Data Link (R-CDL) represents an advanced concept and approach in providing a high-speed pipeline to offload data and imagery from a tactical platform. R-CDL uses the AESA radar's fire control transmitter and antenna to perform high-data rate, two-way communications at
long ranges.
Synthetic aperture radar map imagery and streaming video were relayed from a Northrop Grumman BAC 1-11 test aircraft to an L-3 Communications ground station. During the mission, the team transmitted and received in full duplex at 274-megabits per second burst rate. The airborne and ground terminals used off-the-shelf L-3 programmable modems with the addition of a new R-CDL waveform.
