Defense Technology International - December 2007 - (Page 41)

the aircraft’s only link that transmits. The ﬁghter has a Joint Tactical Information Display System (JTIDS) receiver, but any communication o the aircraft, other than to another F-22, is done by voice radio. Changing this situation hasn’t been easy. Plans to integrate standard Link 16 have been abandoned and proposals for a satcoms link—intended a few years ago to form part of the Block 40 “full global strike” conﬁguration—have been abandoned. The current plan is to demonstrate a new set of data link hardware and waveforms, known as the Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT), on board an F-22 as part of the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2008 (JEFX-08) next year. TTNT is an Internet protocol (IP)based system developed by Rockwell Collins. It is designed to be built into a ﬁghter’s radio system and provide data rates at up to 2 megabits/sec. over ranges of 100 naut. mi. It uses statistical models to manage throughput, assigning capacity to the highest-priority data, and is claimed to be compatible with LPI techniques. The F-35 has also undergone changes. In late 2004, the interoperability key performance parameter (KPP) in the specification was changed to “net ready.” Before the change, the F-35 was intended to be compatible with a 2010 command-and-control system. Now, it is expected to be ready for an IP environment. The F-35 will be equipped with Link 16 in addition to MADL. There are, however, two limitations to that technology. Link 16 is not LPI: Briefings show the To meet the “net-ready” KPP, the F-35 will eventually be equipped with TTNT. This is not part of the baseline program but is likely to be part of an early postSDD block. However, that system has a limitation: No aircraft other than the F-35 and the F-22 use it. The result is that these two VLO platforms will be supported in service with the U.S. Air Force by a new airborne system, known as Objective Gateway. This will be a high-ﬂying, standoff platform that receives signals from TTNT, Link 16 and many other formats— including battleﬁeld radios and UAV control links—and translates them into other formats and rebroadcasts them. Objective Gateway is a descendant Israeli F-16I ﬁghters carry two-way satcoms terminals under a radome forward of the vertical ﬁn. www.aviationweek.com/dti F-35 using it before ingress and after leaving hostile territory. The F-35’s “ﬁrst-day VLO” philosophy may allow for more use of Link 16 when it operates in non-VLO conﬁgurations later in the campaign, with external weapons. And Link 16 can’t carry the kind of data the F-35 can gather. The F-35 is intended to carry a broadband beyond-lineof-sight satcoms link, but that part of the program is delayed. The satcoms link was originally supposed to work with the Defense Dept.’s UHF FollowOn satellites, but these will mostly be dead by the time the F-35 is in service in large numbers. The ﬁghter will now be equipped for the next-generation MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) satellites. In the process, the satcoms system has slipped from Block 3—the full operational capability standard for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to be reached at the end of systems development and demonstration (SDD)—to Block 4, which is expected to be in service by 2015. of a late1990s project from the Defe n s e Advanced Research Projects Agency called Airborne Communications Node (ACN), which led to a Northrop Grumman program called Battlefield ACN (BACN). The prototype BACN was demonstrated in JEFX-06, in the weapons bay of a Cold War spy plane, a General Dynamics WB-57F. BACN incorporates elements of a Northrop Grumman concept called Advanced Information Architecture, which relies on the plummeting cost and rocketing performance of electronic memory. Rather than sitting in the sky, dumbly receiving and transmitting data and hogging bandwidth, BACN stores information and provides it to the user on demand. A next-generation communications node payload is being installed on a leased Gulfstream business jet at the Navy’s Patuxent River, Md., ﬂight-test center. It appears that this payload (also known as BACN Spiral 2) will connect the TTNT-equipped F-22 to the network in JEFX-08. The next-generation BACN suite supports a USAF-Navy Joint Capability Technology Demonstration known as Cable (Communications Air-Borne Layer Expansion), which is intended to lead not only to further demonstrations but also to an interim operational capability. USAF is looking to install Cable on business jets, while the Navy is considering placing it on board E-6B Mercury aircraft, originally designed to communicate with submerged submarines. In the long run, Cable leads to USAF’s Objective Gateway, which is meant to be small and power-thrifty enough to 41 JONATHON DERDEN DECEMBER 2007 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Defense Technology International - December 2007

Defense Technology International - December 2007 Contents Around the World Science Watch Tech Watch BrahMos: Ramjet Ship Killer r-e-s-p-e-c-t Deja Vu Trump Card Dubai Demos Agile Helos Joint Force Online Charge UGVs Creep, Crawl to Victory Sweet Ride Fast, Lethal Ship Defense Networking Stealth: Why Raptors Can't Talk The Net Cutting Edge First Person In Review Insight

Defense Technology International - December 2007

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