Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)

[Corsair1963]

Services Get First Look At Air Force Multi-Domain Chops

Senior Pentagon and service officials observed the last day of the ground-breaking ABMS exercise and the Air Force engaged Northern Command to create and manage the scenario.

WASHINGTON: With an eye on a skeptical Congress and the 2021 budget battle, the Air Force has wrapped the first of many planned joint exercises to demonstrate the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which the service sees as the heart of DoD’s emerging concept of Multi-Domain Operations.

“Cloud, mesh networking, and software-defined systems were the stars of the show, all developed at commercial internet speeds,” Air Force acquisition head Will Roper said after the exercise.

The stakes are high. The 2021 budget request will be the first big shot at getting ABMS underway. Roper noted in a Nov. 26 speech at the Center for a New American Security and the post-exercise Air Force press release reaffirmed that the service “intends to bolster these resources over the next five years.”




The “ABMS Onramp” test — staged Dec. 16-18 in Florida — involved aircraft from the Air Force and Navy, a Navy destroyer, an Army air defense sensor and fire unit, and a special operations unit, as well as commercial space and ground sensors in a scenario that simulated a cruise missile threat to the US homeland, according to the Air Force.

The exercise “tested technology being developed to enable the military’s developing concept called Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2),” the Air Force release said.


Demonstrating the real-world value of the complex, software-centric ABMS ‘system of systems’ that will enable JADC2 (formerly known as Multi-Domain Command and Control) is key to garnering support from lawmakers, but also from other service leaders, as Roper has admitted.

Specifically, the exercise involved QF-16 aircraft simulating a cruise missile attack. Once the missile signature was detected, the Air Force used “new software, communications equipment and a ‘mesh network’,” to relay the information to the USS Thomas Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer deployed in the Gulf of Mexico. “The same information was passed to a pair of Air Force F-35s and another pair of F-22s. Also receiving the information were commanders at Eglin, a pair of Navy F-35s, an Army unit equipped with a mobile missile launcher known as HIMARS, and special forces on the ground,” the Air Force says.



(HIMARS, the Army’s M-142 Highly Mobile Artillery Rocket System is mounted on a 5-ton Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles XM1140A1 truck chassis, and can launch six MLRS rockets or one ATACMS missile.)

As I reported earlier this month, the exercise included testing the so-called “dataONE” cloud-based data repository that is intended to eventually house data from all sensors — regardless of service and including commercial sensors — used by the military. The dataONE repository is the successor to the Air Force’s ground-breaking Unified Data Library experiment to compile data from military and commercial space situational awareness radar, telescopes and satellites.

Up to now, ABMS testing has been a piecemeal effort, focused on individual technology demonstrations such as the Global Lightening effort at Air Force Research Laboratory to connect various aircraft to commercial satellites providing Internet capability.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Trump late Friday, provides $33.6 million for ABMS, a cut of $2 million from DoD’s $35.6 million request. However, given the fact that pieces of ABMS currently are dispersed into a number of experimental projects, the Air Force “expects to receive around $185 million this fiscal year,” the service said.

Reflecting skepticism on both sides of Capitol Hill, the 2020 NDAA demands that DoD and the Air Force provide a raft of documentation explaining the system and presenting a final analysis of alternatives (AoA) by June 2020.

https://breakingdefense.com/2019/12/osd ... ain-chops/

[spazsinbad]

Air Force, Navy, Army conduct first ‘real world’ test of Advanced Battle Management System
23 Dec 2019 Capt. Cara Bousie and Charles Pope, Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

"EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- In the first field test of a novel approach to warfighting, communicating and decision-making, the Air Force, Navy and Army used new methods and technology Dec. 16-18 for collecting, analyzing and sharing information in real time to identify and defeat a simulated cruise missile threat to the United States.

A three-day long exercise of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) tested technology being developed to enable the military’s developing concept called Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). When fully realized, senior leaders say JADC2 will be the backbone of operations and deterrence, allowing U.S. forces from all services as well as allies to orchestrate military operations across all domains, such as sea, land, air, space and cyber operations. The technology under development via ABMS enables this concept by simultaneously receiving, fusing and acting upon a vast array of data and information from each of these domains – all in an instant. The Air Force expects to receive around $185 million this fiscal year for this effort, and intends to bolster these resources over the next five years, underscoring both its importance and potential.

“In order to develop the right capability that the operator needs at speed, we partner with Combatant Commanders every four months to ensure that what we are building addresses the array of challenges presented by the National Defense Strategy across the globe,” said Preston Dunlap, the Chief Architect of the Air Force who is kick-starting ABMS.

This initial exercise focused on defending the homeland…. Events culminated on Dec. 18 when senior leaders from across the Department of Defense arrived at the test’s command and control hub for an ABMS overview and abbreviated exercise. All at once in a well-secured room, they watched real-time data pour in, and out of, the command cell. They observed information from platforms and people flowing instantly and simultaneously across air, land, sea and space that provided shared situational updates as events occurred whether the information originated from jets, or passing satellites, or from sea and ground forces on the move. Then, the group transitioned to outdoor tents to continue the exercise in a rugged environment, where senior leaders could also inspect first-hand and learn about high-speed Air Force and industry equipment and software that enabled the week’s test.

“Today’s demo is our first time demonstrating internet-of-things connectivity across the joint force,” Air Force acquisitions lead Dr. Will Roper said. “Cloud, mesh networking and software-defined systems were the stars of the show, all developed at commercial internet speeds.”

He also spoke to the necessity of industry partnership and leveraging their expertise. “Our four-month ‘connect-a-thon’ cycle unlocks industry’s ability to iterate with testers, acquirer, and warfighters. For example, the insights from connecting the F-22 and F-35 for the first time will help our industry partners take the next leap,” Roper said.

The demonstration was the first of its kind in a series of exercises scheduled to occur roughly every four months. Each new exercise will build on the one before and include responses to problems and lessons learned. Dunlap said the intent is to move much faster than before to conceive, build and test new technologies and strategies despite complexity or technical challenges....

...An equally important goal is to demonstrate the real-world value of the hard-to-describe effort in tangible, understandable ways. JADC2, previously named multi-domain operations command and control, relies on ABMS to develop software and algorithms so that artificial intelligence and machine learning can compute and connect vast amounts of data from sensors and other sources at a speed and accuracy far beyond what is currently attainable. ABMS also includes hardware updates including radios, antenna, and more robust networks that enable unimpeded data flow to operators. Aside from tools and tech, JADC2 also demands a cultural change among service men and women that embraces and responds to multi-faceted battlespaces driven by information shared across the joint force.

The critical difference going forward is to create a failsafe system that gets – and shares - real time information across multiple spaces and platforms simultaneously. Achieving this will remove barriers that can keep information from personnel and units that need it. For example, once in place, the new command and control ability will allow F-16 and F-35 pilots to see the same information at the same time in the same way along with a submarine commander, a space officer controlling satellites and an Army Special Forces unit on the ground."

Source: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... anagement/

[madrat]

It is already about a billion times better at giving commanders situational awareness than we had during Desert Storm.

[Corsair1963]

This is going to be revolution on the way we fight future conflicts. Nations that don't "heed" that change will quickly be pushed aside...

[spazsinbad]

What if Air Force tankers became a communications node?
06 Jan 2019 Valerie Insinna

"SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — For decades, the Air Force’s tanker fleet have logged hours transferring fuel, transporting troops and serving as flying ambulances. Soon, the tankers could add another mission to the list: relaying communications data as part of the Air Force’s new mesh network. Air Mobility Command leaders are exploring whether aerial refueling aircraft could become a communications node in the Advanced Battle Management System, Lt. Gen. Jon Thomas, the organization’s deputy commander, told Defense News in a December interview....

...Tankers are well-suited to be used as communications nodes for two reasons, Thomas said. One, aerial refueling planes are typically large, wide-body aircraft that have enough excess space and power to host additional communication systems. The second is their location during combat. One way to operate tanker aircraft is to position them near a contested airspace, close enough for fighters and other airborne assets to refuel as needed before returning to battle, he said.

“If you’re in that spot, you also have a great opportunity by virtue of that position. You can communicate to a lot of different assets if you have the right equipment on the tanker. You can communicate line of sight to other air assets. You can communicate line of sight possibly to some assets on the surface,” Thomas said. “If you have the ability to get to the space layer and communicate, then you can also be a pathway from line-of-sight to beyond line-of-sight, to the space layer. If you have a resilient space architecture, then you can lateral across and then come back down to a ground entry point.”

The Air Force’s newest tanker, the KC-46, has communications and defensive systems that would allow it to become a communications relay without needing significant upgrades, Thomas said....

...“Experimentation is … the next step,” he said. “What are the additional waveforms that [we] need to have for line of sight? What are the additional ways that we can connect to the space layer?” One endeavor already underway is the Global Lightning experiment, in which a KC-135 will be outfitted with equipment for communication with SpaceX’s Starlink — a planned “megaconstellation” of hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit set to provide high-bandwidth commercial internet — as well as other equipment from vendors such as Iridium and L3Harris.

“It's one thing to have to engineer it and cut a hole in the skin of the airplane, and put an antenna and do some internal racks and all that,” Thomas said. The bigger question will be whether the Air Force can put new technologies on the tanker quickly and grow them over time, he said. “Far too often in the past, we have had great ideas and great capabilities that we put on airplanes,” he said. “[But] we’ve had no ability to go further because either the information is proprietary to a certain vendor, or we didn’t build in the size, weight, power cooling, thermal management that would allow us to add more equipment or have more capability.”"

Source: https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2020/01/06 ... ions-node/

[spazsinbad]

After Successful Data Transfer Between F-35 and F-22, Air Force Plans New Tests
22 Jan 2020 Oriana Pawlyk

"The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct additional tests at its combatant commands of a sophisticated data-sharing system that fuses intelligence data from multiple platforms, according to top service officials. Dr. Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, and Preston Dunlap, the service's chief architect for the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), explained Tuesday that developers went to U.S. Northern Command first for key tests to see if the military services could execute multi-domain operations by pooling resources.

In one case, it included a highly publicized F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter data transfer test, conducted in December off the coast of Florida. "We did begin to pass data back and forth over what we call a low-probability-of-detection intercept," said Dunlap, adding that the test involved Air Force fifth-generation fighters and Navy F-35Bs transferring data securely…. That experiment tested a solution built by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Honeywell: "GatewayONE," a radio and antenna system.... [then info about other combinations]

...Roper said testers had a low baseline for success: Roughly a 10% success rate would have been enough. But in the Northern Command exercise, Roper said he was "thrilled" that 26 test points out of 28 worked. "That's too high of the success rate this first time, but I'll take it," he said.

Air Force Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, head of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist were able to witness how the decision-making process could be streamlined. Instead of a multitude of phone calls between top officials on minute-by-minute developments, "people are no longer the glue," Roper said. "The information flows everywhere all at once, and the people are the assessors, the analyzers, the feedback providers," he said.

The success of the ABMS tests should prompt defense companies to compete to reconfigure older, legacy systems that could one day connect to a larger network to give service members data and intelligence in real-time, Roper said. "What I hope industry will see in the Advanced Battle Management System program is a pot of money that is for connecting things, both new things and legacy things, and that it is open for competition," he said.

ABMS will get better -- especially through the use of automation and artificial intelligence built into the system -- as it self-corrects and learns over time, Roper said. "Sometimes, when we talk about command and control, the control sounds like building a system that tells you what to do. And that's really not what ABMS is about," he said. "Very similar to the way the app 'Waze' works, it's [about] helping you be a better driver. … It understands your likes and dislikes, and it's pulling information from the world around you. "The more you interact with the app, the better the analytics get," he said."

Source: https://www.military.com/daily-news/202 ... tests.html

[spazsinbad]

The Air Force tested its Advanced Battle Management System. Here’s what worked, and what didn’t.
22 Jan 2020 Valerie Insinna [brain dead full stop in title string with TWO SENTENCES?! WTF]

"WASHINGTON — The first field test of the U.S. Air Force’s experimental Advanced Battle Management System in December was a success, with about 26 out of 28 capabilities showing some semblance of functionality during a recent exercise, the service’s acquisition chief said Tuesday....

...The three-day test took place at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and involved a potential cruise missile attack on the United States simulated by QF-16 drones. Through the exercise, Air Force F-22 jets, Air Force and Navy F-35 fighters, the Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner, an Army unit equipped with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, as well as special operators shared data in real time in ways the services cannot currently do in an operational environment....

…The F-35 and F-22 were able to stealthily exchange data… However, the first ABMS test showed hopeful signs [wonder she didn't use LOOM] for fifth-generation fighter communication.
[ https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2019/11/12 ... xperiment/ ]
The demonstration involved radio systems — built by F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin as well as Northrop Grumman, which manufactures key structures and mission systems for the aircraft, including MADL, Dunlap said. The demo also included Honeywell-made antennas built to speak across both MADL and IFDL, he added.

Those systems were integrated onto a ground based rig that “look[ed] like a big piece of hardware with radios on it,” according to Roper. Then, the F-35 and F-22 flew over the system, exchanging data by bouncing it back-and-forth from the ground-based radios, Dunlap said. He noted that the test verified that existing technology can be used to overcome three obstacles: translating the F-35’s MADL to the F-22’s IFDL; moving data across the different frequencies; and securing the communication. "It was really herculean,” Dunlap said. "[The contractors] were excited by the speed of the acquisition team to get the ball going."..." [then info about other tests/options]

Source: https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2020/01/22 ... hat-didnt/

[spazsinbad]

Different details excerpted sometimes but same story....

First Data-Sharing Demonstration Opens New Joint Warfare Possibilities
21 Jan 2020 Rachel S. Cohen

"A recent Air Force demonstration to share data between USAF and Navy fighter jets, Army munitions, a Navy destroyer, and more proved largely successful, paving the way for a bigger test in April.... [youse know the story by now]

...Service officials are already considering some tweaks for the next demo. US Space Command and US Strategic Command will join NORTHCOM for the experiment. The gateway, a box equipped with radio antennas that can translate between F-35 and F-22 data languages, sat on the ground for the first test. In April, it will be airborne—possibly on the XQ-58 Valkyrie drone being designed as a fighter jet wingman known as “Skyborg.”..."

Source:: https://www.airforcemag.com/first-data- ... ibilities/

[spazsinbad]

Northrop to prototype communications gateway for fifth-generation fighters
04 May 2020 Greg Waldron

"Northrop Grumman will develop the prototype of a new system that enables improved communications among diverse platforms. The company labels the system gatewayOne, and is undertaking the work under the US Air Force’s (USAF’s) Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) effort, following a contract with the service’s Life Cycle Management Center.

“Northrop Grumman is providing engineering, management and technical assistance for the air force’s integration of net-centric 5th-to-5th generation aircraft communications capabilities and other platforms into a modular, open-architecture gateway,” says the company....

...The USAF operates two fifth-generation types: the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22. Longer term, ABMS is seen as linking these two types as well as a diverse range of other aircraft, naval assets, and ground units. The USAF hopes that ABMS will become the sole network of all US military services, but the US Army and US Navy have yet to commit.

In addition, Northrop adds, the capability could help network proposed “attritable aircraft”, which will be affordable unmanned systems that accompany manned aircraft in challenging combat scenarios.

While ABMS holds great promise for networking diverse assets, it recently came in for criticism from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). In an April report, the GAO contended that the initiative lacked organisational structure in areas such as establishing detailed plans and overall cost estimates."

Source: https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing ... 98.article

[spazsinbad]

GatewayONE to Link Fourth-, Fifth-Gen Fighters
04 May 2020 John A. Tirpak

"Northrop Grumman will test a system that will allow fourth- and fifth-generation fighters to talk to each other, as well as “attritable” aircraft, during the next iteration of the Advanced Battle Management System experiment....

...The system, being developed under a contract let last October by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center C3I & Networks Directorate—Northrop would not discuss its terms—is a “modular, open-architecture gateway” that uses both voice and data to allow the aircraft to communicate, the company said in a May 1 press release. The system is a programmable radio carried by the aircraft and requires neither physical modification nor the use of a flying “translator” aircraft like the manned E-11A or unmanned EQ-4B Battlefield Airborne Communication Network, or BACN.

Northrop said the system is based on its “Freedom” software-driven radio. It is “developing affordable variants customized to fit multiple platforms,” the company said in a press release....

...Preston Dunlap, the Air Force’s architect for ABMS, said after the last experiment, “We did begin to pass data back and forth over what we call a low probability of detection intercept” system and pass voice and data between Air Force F-22s and Navy F-35s. He said that gateway was built by Northrop, Lockheed Martin, and Honeywell.

The postponed April experiment for ABMS was to have featured the XQ-58 Valkyrie using the gateway, and this is likely to play in the next iteration. Air Force budget documents indicated the service will install some gateway hardware on the KC-46 tanker."

Source: https://www.airforcemag.com/northrop-wo ... -fighters/

[stereospace]

I worry most about the satellites. They are the weak, undefended, but critical links. We badly need an active satellite defense system.

[spazsinbad]

Services Looking for ‘Synergy’ in JADC2 Efforts
13 Nov 2020 Mallory Shelbourne

"The Army, Navy and Air Force are on the same page as they pursue initiatives meant to feed into the Pentagon’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control effort, the director of naval intelligence said Friday.

During a virtual event co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Trussler, the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, N2/N6, said the services are seeking synergy in working to connect various systems across a battle network for the joint force.

“What you’re seeing when you see the Navy announce Project Overmatch, when you see the Air Force with their Advanced Battle Management System, when you see the Army’s Project Convergence – when I say Overmatch that’s Navy and Marine Corps all in together – you’re seeing the services recognizing and working . . . really to take advantage of capabilities and linking them,” Trussler said during the event....

...The Navy and the Air Force last year came to a handshake deal to pursue JADC2, USNI News previously reported. Meanwhile, the Army’s Project Convergence is evaluating the service’s part in JADC2....

...The objective in developing a naval battle network is to easily pull and move data between different systems and platforms for targeting purposes.

“We’re trying to link sensors, platforms, shooters, across the service – agnostic of the paths to get there, agnostic to the platforms and source. And that’s not just something somebody woke up and though about last year. All the services were already working,” Trussler said.

“We were great – a decade and more ago – about building tremendous platforms with great sensors and great weapons. And then we figured that we need to do a little better,” he continued. “We need for our platforms and our weapons to receive sensor data from other platforms, or from space, or from other aircraft that are nearby. And vice versa. And maybe the sensor is not the actual shooter.”

Graphic: "USAF image" https://news.usni.org/wp-content/upload ... US_DoD.jpg

Source: https://news.usni.org/2020/11/13/servic ... c2-efforts

Online Event: Maritime Security Dialogue - Information Warfare: From A Supporting Role To A Leading 53 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4ZIgwrMT4

[doge]

Dutch...!
https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/News/D ... nstration/

USAFE completes CJADC2 demonstration
By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published March 01, 2021
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNS) --
U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, in conjunction with the Department of the Air Force’s Chief Architect’s Office, conducted a Combined, Joint All-Domain Command and Control demonstration in international waters and airspace in and around the Baltic Sea. Participation included assets from U.S. Naval Forces Europe – Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, U.S. Army Europe – Africa, U.S. Strategic Command, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Netherlands air force and the Polish air force.
This demonstration was designed to test and observe the ability of the joint force, our allies and partners to integrate and provide command and control across multiple networks to multiple force capabilities.
“Conducting a complex and real-world focused CJADC2 demonstration allowed our joint and allied team to find areas where we can innovate with systems we already have and also to identify areas where our warfighters need assistance from the Air and Space Forces’ Chief Architect’s Office,” said Gen. Jeff Harrigian, USAFE-AFAFRICA commander.

Combined forces participated in two separate mission threads during the CJADC2 demonstration. First, U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagles and F-15E Strike Eagles from the 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, conducted a targeting scenario using Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile employment tactics over the Baltic Sea. The JASSM is a long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff missile designed to destroy high-value, well-defended targets.
The U.S. and U.K. also provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance airborne assets to support the targeting and command and control of the demonstration. These assets were able to integrate targeting and sensor information with other Air Force entities, including the 603rd Air Operations Center and the Deployable Ground System, as well as joint assets from the U.S. Army and a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon. KC-135 Stratotankers from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, RAF Mildenhall, U.K., and a C-17 Globemaster III from Air Mobility Command also supported the demonstration.
U.S. Air Force and Royal Netherlands Air Force assets also participated in a mission thread involving the defense of Ramstein Air Base, Germany. This second demonstration occurred simultaneously with the targeting demonstration and tested the ability for the joint and combined force to sense and target unmanned aerial systems and cruise missile attacks against the base. Dutch F-35 Lightning IIs also participated in the demonstration as communication links between base defense arrays as well as the 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command.

U.S. Space Force also supported the demonstration with one Multiband Assessment of the Communication Environment from the 16th Space Control Squadron, Peterson-Schriever Garrison, Colorado. Other programs that supported the event include the Command and Control, Incident Management, and Emergency Response Application, Kessel Run – Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/Detachment 12, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. Additionally, the 341st Missile Wing, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana contributed by exploring various communication methodologies and technologies in support of a common operating picture.
“A truly connected joint force can’t happen without strong partnerships with our combatant commands and major commands in overseas theaters," said Preston Dunlap, the Air and Space Forces’ chief architect. "Our methodology for these Department of the Air Force demonstrations is to take our technology to the warfighter and to iterate and innovate alongside them during these demonstration sprints. Future conflicts will be with technologically advanced adversaries – and will be contested – so a distributed but integrated system of command and control is critical if we’re to compete and win. Our USAFE counterparts working with our allies and partners during this CJADC2 event was extremely productive and helped us push the ball down the field on digitally connecting the joint force.”

In an era of great power competition and in line with the National Defense Strategy, this CJADC2 event demonstrated the joint and combined force’s ability to converge assets from all domains and across NATO allies into the Baltic Sea. This will generate firepower inside an area that an adversary believes to be protected through anti-access, area denial technology, while also supporting the resiliency and defense of a key power projection base. U.S. and allied military exercises in the Baltic Sea enhance regional stability, combined readiness, and capability with our NATO allies and partners.
“Overall, I’m impressed with our warfighters’ ability to command and control a complex targeting process as well as a base air defense scenario,” Harrigian said, “but there are areas where we can continue to improve and where technology can help us streamline our network systems to ensure all of our disparate networks can communicate and ease the workload on our Airmen.”
USAFE-AFAFRICA, alongside European joint and allied partners, will continue conducting CJADC2 events to integrate technology – including target recognition and joint force integration network solutions – to connect as many sensors as possible to a common operating network, presenting warfighters with an information advantage across all warfighting domains.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... r-exercise

Air Force F-15Es Train To Launch Cruise Missiles Over The Baltic Sea
The event also saw F-35 Joint Strike Fighters helping to pass vital information between Air Force and Army air and missile defense units.
BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK MARCH 2, 2021
The U.S. Air Force recently led a major exercise in and around Europe that also included elements from other branches of the U.S. military and various NATO allies. The event included F-15E Strike Eagle crews going through the tactics, techniques, and procedures that would be involved in carrying out cruise missile strikes in the strategic Baltic Sea region, home to a major Russian military outpost, using AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, or JASSMs. There was also a base defense scenario centered on protecting against incoming missile and drone strikes, in which F-35 Joint Strike Fighters helped move important data between personnel at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany and U.S. Army air and missile defense units.

"Dutch F-35 Lightning IIs also participated in the demonstration as communication links between base defense arrays [at Ramstein] as well as the 10th Army Air [and] Missile Defense Command," the service said about that part of the demonstration. There have been multiple demonstrations in the past involving the use of F-35s as platforms to provide offboard targeting information, as well as communications relay nodes, including in support of missile defense operations. The Joint Strike Fighter offers an impressive array of sensor and other data fusion capabilities that make it an ideal choice for this kind of mission.

[doge]

Other Dutch articles.
https://www.airforcemag.com/usafes-abms ... -scenario/

USAFE’s ABMS On-Ramp Included Partner Nations, Base Defense Scenario
March 1, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine
U.S. Air Forces in Europe last week wrapped its Advanced Battle Management System demonstration, bringing together dozens of aircraft from U.S. military services and multiple countries to find new ways to share data and operate together.
The USAFE “on ramp” demonstration was the first to have non-U.S. military participants, with the Royal Netherlands Air Force, Polish Air Force, and United Kingdom Royal Air Force flying. It was also the first ABMS event to occur after Congress limited some of the funding in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
USAFE boss Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian told reporters during the Air Force Association’s virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium that budget restrictions had “minimal impacts,” because the command added some of its own funding “because I thought it was important enough to contribute to this while we worked with the team back in the Pentagon to find ways to get to where we needed to go.”
For the event, the large airborne scenario focused on F-15Cs and F-15Es from RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, practicing the employment of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles over the Baltic Sea, using targeting and command and control through U.S. and United Kingdom assets, according to a USAFE release. These included the 603rd Air Operations Center and the Deployable Ground System, along with U.S. Navy P-8, KC-135s from RAF Mildenhall, and a USAF C-17.

Simultaneously at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, USAF assets and Dutch F-35s participated in a mission aimed at base defense. This included joint and combined teams targeting unmanned aerial systems and simulated cruise missile attacks. The F-35s served as a communication link between the defense and the U.S. Army’s 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command, according to the release.
The U.S. Space Force helped with a Multiband Assessment of the Communication Environment from the 16th Space Control Squadron. Harrigian said the exercise included SpaceX’s Starlink broadband system.
Additionally, the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., helped with communication. Kessel Run with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Detachment 12 also supported the event.
“There were minimal impacts from a budget perspective in terms of what we wanted to do, we were able to execute both the find, fix, and target piece of the demo and do our base defense, as well,” Harrigian said.
The event took about eight months to plan, Harrigian said. Through the demonstration, USAFE expected to see “foundational improvements on some of our infrastructure. I had expected to see an improvement on some of the tools that we were putting in the hands of our Airmen. And then, ultimately, to see how we holistically pulled this all together, to continue connecting different sensors,” he said.
This is the fourth in the series of ABMS onramps, which focus on testing and developing new technologies to link sensors and shooters. The effort started out as a way to replace the service’s aging E-8C Joint STARS and has morphed into a massive new look at how the service can communicate and target across aircraft and other joint assets.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... les-179193

Secret Is Out: How F-35s and U.S. Warships Will Kill Drones and Missiles
America and its allies are practicing the art of sharing threat and targeting data against a variety of flying threats.
by Kris Osborn March 3, 2021
Recently, U.S. Army missile defense assets, Dutch F-35 stealth fighters and joint multi-domain command and control systems destroyed enemy drone targets and knocked out cruise missile attacks during an international collaborative exercise. That war game was intended to test, assess and replicate the kinds of technologies needed to ensure base defense.
Operating as part of a Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) exercise over the Baltic Sea and on the European continent, U.S. and allied forces conducted a specific “mission thread” intended to test the defenses of Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Base defenses, drawing upon joint, integrated Army-Air Force tactics, weapons and technologies, is taking on new urgency in light of the growing international drone and drone swarm threat. These drones are precisely the kind of attack scenario the Pentagon’s JADC2 is intended to address.

As part of the exercise, a Dutch F-35 operated as an aerial sensor node connecting targeting data to ground control centers and the 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command. When addressing the merits of the JADC2 combat preparation training, Air Force General Jeffrey Harrigian, Commander, U.S. Forces Europe, and Africa, cited the pressing need to connect platforms across domains as sensor-nodes in an integrated combat “web” or mesh of platforms involving ground-based air defenses, drones and fixed wing surveillance and attack assets.
“As you look at how we are set up, there is an integrated air and missile umbrella that lives over Europe. As we got into the nuances of our bases, we felt we needed to understand how we defend ourselves. That starts with domain awareness and leveraging all the sensors that are available to us, some are available to us from our partners,” Harrigian told reporters at the 2021 Air Force Association Symposium.

Harrigian seemed to be referring to what could be thought of as a kind of multi-layered defense, linking longer and shorter-range sensors to one another as part of an integrated threat identification system. This integration would be crucial to finding and establishing a continuous target “track,” reducing sensor-to-shooter time and getting commanders threat data with the longest possible response or counterattack time window.
“Closer in we are looking at radars and Electro-Optical Cameras, recognizing the second piece of it would be the Command and Control circumstances and how we get a common operational picture supported by machine learning,” Harrigian said.

Targets approaching from beyond the horizon, for instance, could be apprehended by space assets or even F-35s functioning as an aerial sensor “relay” node. In this type of threat circumstance, a longer-range ground-fired interceptor missile or even air-to-air weapon could be used to destroy incoming fire at safer standoff distances. This kind of networking, connecting otherwise disparate nodes to extend command and control ranges, is already deployed in some respects. For example, the now-deployed Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air system (NIFC-CA) currently protecting destroyers and Carrier Strike Groups uses Hawkeye surveillance planes or F-35s to detect an enemy anti-ship missile from beyond the horizon. That system then relays that threat data to ship commanders, providing a much-improved time window with which to choose an optimal response or defensive posture. Picking up on the threat data, the Navy destroyer then fires a precision SM-6 interceptor missile armed with a dual-mode seeker enabling in-flight maneuverability to track and destroy the approaching threat long before it gets too close to the Navy ships its defending.

This concept informing NIFC-CA seems somewhat aligned or analogous to Harrigian’s thinking about taking multi-domain connectivity operations to yet another level wherein base defense systems can simultaneously draw upon ground-based radar, air assets and various “effectors,” shooters or weapons best suited to respond to the attack. Perhaps with closer in threats, interceptors such as Phalanx area weapons shooting out hundreds of small projectiles or precision-guided interceptors might be a preferred solution. In yet other threat scenarios, perhaps those in urban areas where additional fragmentation generated by an explosive interceptor might imperil civilians, non-kinetic options such as lasers or electronic jamming might be preferred. All of these options pertain to the single, unifying tactical concept fundamental to the Pentagon’s JADC2 massive, rapid real-time information sharing intended to, as Harrigian puts it, “quickly connect any sensor to any shooter.”
Kris Osborn is the defense editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

[basher54321]

21 May 2021

WASHINGTON — The KC-46 will be the first aircraft to be outfitted with equipment that will make it a node in the Air Force’s new battle management system, the service confirmed Friday.

As part of the first capability release of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System program, the service plans on outfitting a portion of its Boeing KC-46 aerial refueling tankers with “an open architecture communications subsystem and edge processing” equipment that will allow it to pass data between the F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters, the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office said in response to written questions from Defense News.

The intent, the RCO stated, is to reach early operational capability by the end of fiscal year 2022.

Although both the F-35 and F-22 were both made by Lockheed Martin, they use different low probability of intercept data links: the Multifunctional Advanced Data Link for the F-35 and the Intra-Flight Data Link onboard the F-22. Those links are incompatible and do not allow the fighters to share information while retaining stealth.

To solve that issue, a number of KC-46s will be equipped with a pod filled with communications equipment that translates between the two waveforms.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/05 ... hare-data/