Empire Challenge Pushes Precision ISR
Click here for more news / Clique aqui para mais notícias
Guy Norris/China Lake guy_norris@aviationweek.com
New methods of gathering and sharing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data and getting information directly to the soldier in the field are entering a final demonstration phase in California before entering service with coalition forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The three week-long Empire Challenge '09 (EC09) is demonstrating some 40 initiatives for gaining a tactical edge across the extensive ranges of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Station here. Run by U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), the "live fly" EC09 includes simulations of ambushes, sniper and "shoot and scoot" mortar attacks, making and planting improvised explosive devices (IED), kidnapping and other elements of irregular warfare.
"The whole focus is to make sure critical ISR data gets down to the tactical edge, whether command and control goes from a three-star general to a staff sergeant in a Humvee with a laptop," says Air Force Col. George Krakie, USJFCOM Joint Intelligence Directorate military lead for EC09. Initiatives are aimed at digitally speeding up data dissemination, making it more precise, of better quality and developing seamless flows from service to service as well as between coalition partners.
EC09 involves real-time distribution of ISR data around 1,700 personnel worldwide at sites in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K., as well as NATO, where analysts from Germany and France are also handling the feed from China Lake. Participating U.S. sites include the Joint Intelligence Lab in Suffolk, Va., the Combined Air Operations Center-Experimental at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., as well as several service distributed common ground/surface system (DCGS) labs.
Airborne assets involved in EC09 include the DHC-6 Twin Otter-mounted AngelFire, a wide area persistent surveillance system containing a high-resolution wide-area imaging array, datalink equipped Shorts 360 Constant Hawk, Boeing F/A-18E/F and E/A-18G, ScanEagle unmanned air vehicle (UAV), Lockheed Martin F-16CJ, P-3C littoral surveillance radar system (LSRS), and U-21 Beechcraft King Air fitted with an L-3/Wescam-developed high-definition video system.
Others include the AeroStar UAV, equipped with UHF and S-band uplinks and an L-band downlink, the RC-135 Rivet Joint, Bell 407 fitted with the joint multi-mission electro-optical system (JMMES), a prospective U.S. Army and Navy sensor, and an advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR)/camera-equipped U-2. A Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk also is involved as part of evaluations of MAJIIC (Multi-sensor Aerospace ground Joint ISR Interoperability Coalition), a system set up for cooperative data sharing between the U.S. and coalition forces.
Although U.S. Air Force-operated General Atomics Predator Bs are all in operational use overseas, Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection-operated Predators also are scheduled to participate and demonstrate communications intelligence and interoperability. A General Atomics-flown King Air, fitted with a Lynx SAR, electro-optics/infrared system and a specially developed control and integration software package also is participating as a Predator surrogate. Late last month the company's Lynx Block 30 radar completed initial test flights on a Sky Warrior Block 1 UAV in support of the planned deployment of the first four units under the Army's extended range/multi-purpose unmanned program.
In use for the first time at EC, which has been held annually since 2004, is the SAIC-developed SensorWeb system, which provides open standards interoperability for a wide range of sensors. Other firsts at EC09 include the use of high-definition video, a wireless 3G tactical network that allows streaming video to be sent direct to handheld units, and a variant of the ScanEagle with a miniaturized SAR.
Global Hawk photo credit: Northrop Grumman
