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U.S. Air Force is struggling to build a modern comms network for its aging fighter force
As fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35 begin to come online, bringing with them advanced sensors and data fusion capability, the U.S. Air Force is looking for a way to build a battlefield communications network that will allow fighter jets of different generations to share a common picture.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor do more than shoot missiles and drop bombs—they are flying data hubs, designed to vacuum in critical threat information and transmit it all over the world. The problem is that the Air Force does not currently have the network architecture necessary to quickly and efficiently distribute that data to the legacy fleet, most of which operates on Commodore 64-era computer systems.
According to Air Combat Commander Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, it is essential that the service build an aerial network that takes advantage of the sophisticated sensors on modern platforms—a so-called “combat cloud” that enables the transmission of information from the tactical edge of the fight to command and control centers.
5TH-TO-4TH GEN FIGHTER COMMUNICATIONS
USAF aims to build a more effective network of its fifth and fourth-gen fighters
F-35, F-22 can’t transmit data to fourth-gen via Link 16 without compromising stealth
Industry waiting on “5th-to-4th” program of record
Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin gearing up to compete
“It is incredibly important: How do we suck up all the information that the F-22, F-35, B-21 and the other family of systems [bring in]?” Carlisle said Sept. 20 at the Air Force Association’s annual air and space conference. “There is tons of information that those sensor suites are gathering that right now we are unable to take advantage of because we do not have the ability to offboard all that information as rapidly and as quickly as we need to.”
The Air Force’s ultimate goal is to network the combat air forces so that F-35 and F-22 pilots can rapidly share images and targeting data with the airmen flying fourth-generation aircraft such as the F-15 and F-16. But the service’s history of using stovepiped communications networks on its fighter jets complicates the already difficult task of enabling all its aircraft to share information in both friendly and hostile environments.
The F-22, for instance, was designed to communicate covertly only with other F-22s, using the low-probability-of-detection, low-probability-of-interception (LPD/LPI) intraflight data link (IFDL). This approach, though unfathomable in today’s increasingly networked environment, made sense at the time the jet was initially designed, when the Air Force envisioned a fighter fleet made up entirely of stealthy fighters—not the mixed force we have today.
By contrast, fourth-generation fighters use the nonstealthy Link 16, which gives off a radio frequency signature that enemy radars can detect and track. The F-35, which communicates clandestinely with other F-35s over Northrop Grumman’s multifunction advanced data link (MADL) waveform, has the ability to transmit and receive Link 16 signals, but doing so will compromise its position if it is operating in stealth mode. The Air Force is now working to bring full Link 16 capability to the F-22; currently the stealthy jet can only receive Link 16 signals, not transmit them.
Key to the Pentagon’s ability to move into the information age is the seamless and ubiquitous sharing of information among all U.S. military users, from aircraft to ships, from tanks to spacecraft, says Lt. Gen. (ret.) David Deptula, the Air Force’s former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. While the Navy, with its Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air architecture, is way ahead of the other services, the Air Force, burdened by stovepipes and programmatic approaches to acquisition, has fallen far behind, Deptula says.
The Air Force wants an integrated airborne network enabling fifth-gen jets like the F-35 to transmit data to legacy aircraft such as the F-15. Credit: U.S. Air Force
“We are not going to get to an all-stealth force anytime soon, so we are going to have aircraft such as F-15s, F-16s, F-18s operating for quite a while,” he says. “So how do we automate this sharing of vast quantities of information in a hands-off manner, so that it is transparent to the pilot, so he or she does not have to be distracted by passing information?”
The key defense players are gearing up to answer that question. Industry has been anticipating a request for proposals from the Air Force for a so-called “5th-to-4th” program of record for several years, but so far no such solicitation has emerged. In the meantime, contractors are hard at work refining technology to meet the need.
For example, Boeing’s secretive Phantom Works developed a podded system called Talon HATE, designed to be hosted on an F-15C and provide connectivity between F-22 and fourth-generation fighters. The Air Force had planned to field four 1,800-lb. Talon HATE pods, which combine a covert data exchange capability with an infrared search-and-track (IRST) sensor, in 2015, but has been mum on the program for the past few years.
More recently, the service appears to be leaning away from a separate podded capability to provide connectivity between different generations of fighters. Instead, leaders are exploring technology such as software-defined radios (SDR) with “translators” to allow operators to easily switch between different waveforms and frequencies, Carlisle says.
This spring, the Air Force put out a notice seeking sources to begin discussions about developing a new “gateway” that would provide a communications pathway from fifth-generation jets to fourth-generation fighters equipped with Link 16 data links. The gateway would be hosted on an F-15C.
The service wants this new gateway to enable fifth-generation fighters to share a common battlespace picture over different tactical data links and include an IRST sensor as a stealthy alternative to radar to scan the skies for airborne targets. The new gateway must also have a way of maintaining satellite communications during air combat and create a secure, common tactical picture that blends information from the IRST sensors with the respective data links of the F-22, F-35 and legacy aircraft.
Northrop has developed a capability that might fit this bill. The Freedom 550 fifth-generation radio—developed under the Joint Strike Fighter Enterprise Terminal (JETpack) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration program—is a multichannel, multifunction SDR, built using modules from the integrated avionics the company provides for the F-35 and F-22. Northrop says the Freedom 550 provides both MADL and IFDL interoperability and allows communication between fifth- and fourth-generation fighters while the modern jets are in stealth mode.
Meanwhile, Northrop is also working on a more robust version of MADL for the F-35 follow-on program, Block 4, that will allow the jet to communicate covertly with F-22, says Colin Phan, director of avionics and tactical networks for Northrop’s communications business. The F-35 program office also hopes the upgraded MADL will allow the F-35 to communicate with fourth-generation fighters without compromising stealth, says Richard Meyer, deputy chief of the Air Force’s F-35 system management office.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin is working on integration of L-3 Communications’ Chameleon waveform for direct communications among F-22s and F-35s without the use of a gateway. Lockheed demonstrated Chameleon, which can be used by antennas operating on the L-band, in 2013 through a series of demonstrations called Project Missouri. Data transmitted via the waveform would be “spread” below the noise in an anti-access environment; only the proper receiver could “pull the data out” of that noise, officials told Aviation Week at the time. The benefit to this approach is that operators can make use of L-band antennas already on the fighters, eliminating the need for costly modifications.
Although Carlisle says the technology is ready, he would not put a time line on fielding such a capability.
“Part of it is resource-driven,” Carlisle says. “I think the technology is really close, and I think we have the capability. [The question] is just how do we get it on the platforms?”
http://aviationweek.com/defense/how-get-f-35s-f-22s-talking-fourth-generation-fighters
As fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35 begin to come online, bringing with them advanced sensors and data fusion capability, the U.S. Air Force is looking for a way to build a battlefield communications network that will allow fighter jets of different generations to share a common picture.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor do more than shoot missiles and drop bombs—they are flying data hubs, designed to vacuum in critical threat information and transmit it all over the world. The problem is that the Air Force does not currently have the network architecture necessary to quickly and efficiently distribute that data to the legacy fleet, most of which operates on Commodore 64-era computer systems.
According to Air Combat Commander Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, it is essential that the service build an aerial network that takes advantage of the sophisticated sensors on modern platforms—a so-called “combat cloud” that enables the transmission of information from the tactical edge of the fight to command and control centers.
5TH-TO-4TH GEN FIGHTER COMMUNICATIONS
USAF aims to build a more effective network of its fifth and fourth-gen fighters
F-35, F-22 can’t transmit data to fourth-gen via Link 16 without compromising stealth
Industry waiting on “5th-to-4th” program of record
Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin gearing up to compete
“It is incredibly important: How do we suck up all the information that the F-22, F-35, B-21 and the other family of systems [bring in]?” Carlisle said Sept. 20 at the Air Force Association’s annual air and space conference. “There is tons of information that those sensor suites are gathering that right now we are unable to take advantage of because we do not have the ability to offboard all that information as rapidly and as quickly as we need to.”
The Air Force’s ultimate goal is to network the combat air forces so that F-35 and F-22 pilots can rapidly share images and targeting data with the airmen flying fourth-generation aircraft such as the F-15 and F-16. But the service’s history of using stovepiped communications networks on its fighter jets complicates the already difficult task of enabling all its aircraft to share information in both friendly and hostile environments.
The F-22, for instance, was designed to communicate covertly only with other F-22s, using the low-probability-of-detection, low-probability-of-interception (LPD/LPI) intraflight data link (IFDL). This approach, though unfathomable in today’s increasingly networked environment, made sense at the time the jet was initially designed, when the Air Force envisioned a fighter fleet made up entirely of stealthy fighters—not the mixed force we have today.
By contrast, fourth-generation fighters use the nonstealthy Link 16, which gives off a radio frequency signature that enemy radars can detect and track. The F-35, which communicates clandestinely with other F-35s over Northrop Grumman’s multifunction advanced data link (MADL) waveform, has the ability to transmit and receive Link 16 signals, but doing so will compromise its position if it is operating in stealth mode. The Air Force is now working to bring full Link 16 capability to the F-22; currently the stealthy jet can only receive Link 16 signals, not transmit them.
Key to the Pentagon’s ability to move into the information age is the seamless and ubiquitous sharing of information among all U.S. military users, from aircraft to ships, from tanks to spacecraft, says Lt. Gen. (ret.) David Deptula, the Air Force’s former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. While the Navy, with its Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air architecture, is way ahead of the other services, the Air Force, burdened by stovepipes and programmatic approaches to acquisition, has fallen far behind, Deptula says.
The Air Force wants an integrated airborne network enabling fifth-gen jets like the F-35 to transmit data to legacy aircraft such as the F-15. Credit: U.S. Air Force
“We are not going to get to an all-stealth force anytime soon, so we are going to have aircraft such as F-15s, F-16s, F-18s operating for quite a while,” he says. “So how do we automate this sharing of vast quantities of information in a hands-off manner, so that it is transparent to the pilot, so he or she does not have to be distracted by passing information?”
The key defense players are gearing up to answer that question. Industry has been anticipating a request for proposals from the Air Force for a so-called “5th-to-4th” program of record for several years, but so far no such solicitation has emerged. In the meantime, contractors are hard at work refining technology to meet the need.
For example, Boeing’s secretive Phantom Works developed a podded system called Talon HATE, designed to be hosted on an F-15C and provide connectivity between F-22 and fourth-generation fighters. The Air Force had planned to field four 1,800-lb. Talon HATE pods, which combine a covert data exchange capability with an infrared search-and-track (IRST) sensor, in 2015, but has been mum on the program for the past few years.
More recently, the service appears to be leaning away from a separate podded capability to provide connectivity between different generations of fighters. Instead, leaders are exploring technology such as software-defined radios (SDR) with “translators” to allow operators to easily switch between different waveforms and frequencies, Carlisle says.
This spring, the Air Force put out a notice seeking sources to begin discussions about developing a new “gateway” that would provide a communications pathway from fifth-generation jets to fourth-generation fighters equipped with Link 16 data links. The gateway would be hosted on an F-15C.
The service wants this new gateway to enable fifth-generation fighters to share a common battlespace picture over different tactical data links and include an IRST sensor as a stealthy alternative to radar to scan the skies for airborne targets. The new gateway must also have a way of maintaining satellite communications during air combat and create a secure, common tactical picture that blends information from the IRST sensors with the respective data links of the F-22, F-35 and legacy aircraft.
Northrop has developed a capability that might fit this bill. The Freedom 550 fifth-generation radio—developed under the Joint Strike Fighter Enterprise Terminal (JETpack) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration program—is a multichannel, multifunction SDR, built using modules from the integrated avionics the company provides for the F-35 and F-22. Northrop says the Freedom 550 provides both MADL and IFDL interoperability and allows communication between fifth- and fourth-generation fighters while the modern jets are in stealth mode.
Meanwhile, Northrop is also working on a more robust version of MADL for the F-35 follow-on program, Block 4, that will allow the jet to communicate covertly with F-22, says Colin Phan, director of avionics and tactical networks for Northrop’s communications business. The F-35 program office also hopes the upgraded MADL will allow the F-35 to communicate with fourth-generation fighters without compromising stealth, says Richard Meyer, deputy chief of the Air Force’s F-35 system management office.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin is working on integration of L-3 Communications’ Chameleon waveform for direct communications among F-22s and F-35s without the use of a gateway. Lockheed demonstrated Chameleon, which can be used by antennas operating on the L-band, in 2013 through a series of demonstrations called Project Missouri. Data transmitted via the waveform would be “spread” below the noise in an anti-access environment; only the proper receiver could “pull the data out” of that noise, officials told Aviation Week at the time. The benefit to this approach is that operators can make use of L-band antennas already on the fighters, eliminating the need for costly modifications.
Although Carlisle says the technology is ready, he would not put a time line on fielding such a capability.
“Part of it is resource-driven,” Carlisle says. “I think the technology is really close, and I think we have the capability. [The question] is just how do we get it on the platforms?”
http://aviationweek.com/defense/how-get-f-35s-f-22s-talking-fourth-generation-fighters
