Achieving A Military Internet Of Things With F-22, F-35 Aircraft
by Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs December
20,
2020
On December 9, 2020 ... the joint force took another step toward
achieving a military Internet of Things when fifth-generation
aircraft overcame long standing connectivity limitations to share
actionable operational data in their native secure digital
“languages” with and through multiple sources for the first time.
This test was the latest demonstration of the transformative
warfighting impact of the open architecture underpinning the
Advanced Battle Management System.
The joint effort included
a Marine Corps F-35B variant and the Air Force
F-22 Raptor and
F-35A Lightning II variant flying with an
attritableONE XQ-58A Valkyrie for the first time. The primary tests
took place at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona with preparatory tests at
Nellis
Air Force Base, Nevada.
A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II fly in formation with the XQ-58A Valkyrie low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle over the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground testing range, Ariz., during a series of tests, Dec. 9, 2020. This integrated test follows a series of gatewayONE ground tests that began during the inaugural Department of the Air Force on-ramp last year in December. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. James Cason)
|
Lt. Col. Kate Stowe,
gatewayONE program manager at the
Air
Force Lifecycle Management Center, set out with 18 test
objectives and successfully achieved nine.
“Testing is all
about pushing the limits of what’s possible, finding out where the
toughest challenges are, and adapting creative solutions to
overcoming difficult problem sets,” Stowe said. “The real win of the
day was seeing the gatewayONE establish a secure two-way
translational data path across multiple platforms and multiple
domains. That’s the stuff ABMS is all about.”
Fifth-generation fighters are typically limited to communicating
with each other and to command and control centers via legacy
tactical data connections, not in their native, but incompatible
digital “languages” – Multifunctional Advanced Data Link for F-35
and Intra-Flight Data Link for the F-22. Not only can gatewayONE
translate between those formats, in this test it moved data that is
normally relegated to an operations center or tactical ground node,
directly pushing it into the cockpit at the edge of the multi-domain
battlespace for the first time.
Additionally, the test pushed
the position data of each platform outside of the aircraft’s
close-proximity formation through gatewayONE, which enables battle
managers on the ground or in the air to better orchestrate
operations. The gatewayONE payload also passed tracks or cues from
ground operators to both fighters and passed a cue from the F-35A to
the F-22 for the first time. These bi-directional communications
pathways occurred in the platforms’ native digital “languages” and
the data was displayed through the aircrafts’ organic systems.
“The gatewayONE payload really showed what’s possible and helped
us take a big step towards achieving (Joint All-Domain Command and
Control),” said Lt. Col. Eric Wright, a 59th Test and Evaluation
Squadron F-35 pilot. “This critical capability provides additional
connections between our advanced fighters and other forces and
battle managers across all domains. The future is promising, and
gatewayONE will allow the F-22 and F-35 to connect to and feed data
sources they've never before accessed. Those future connections will
bring additional battlefield awareness into the cockpit and enable
integrated fires across U.S. forces.”
Additional successful
tests during the week included establishing a communications pathway
between the
KC-46 Pegasus tanker and a ground node using
commercial internet routing standards over the Tactical Targeting
Network Technology waveform and the F-35B sending full-motion video
to a ground controller.
A remote control operator speaks into a radio at the U.S.
Army Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. during a XQ-58A Valkyrie
test flight, Dec. 9, 2020. The operator controlled the
aircraft during a test flight where it flew alongside the
Air Force F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II for the first
time. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua King)
|
“If fifth-generation platforms are
going to be quarterbacks of a joint-penetrating team, we have to be
able to communicate with those quarterbacks in an operationally
relevant manner and enable data sharing between them, to them, and
from them. For years people said it couldn’t be done. Today the team
turned another page toward making the impossible possible,” said
Preston Dunlap, Air and Space Force’s chief architect. “In just 12
months, the team has opened the door to a world where we can put the
power of an operations center into the cockpit at the tactical
edge.”
The Dec. 9, 2020 flight test included the attritableONE
platform, also known as the XQ-58 Valkyrie, a lower-cost, unmanned,
aerial vehicle. The rocket-launched Valkyrie successfully conducted
a semi-autonomous flight alongside the F-22 and F-35s for the first
time. The gatewayONE payload was integrated into the Valkyrie for
its maiden voyage with the fifth-generation fighters to conduct an
initial test of gateway capabilities from an attritable platform;
however, shortly after takeoff, the communications payloads lost
connectivity and those test objectives were unable to be
accomplished.
The acquisition team – comprised of
Air Force
Research Laboratory and Air Force Life Cycle Management
Center personnel working in conjunction with
Eglin
Air Force Base, Florida’s 46th Test Squadron – came
together to make this test a success and empower the platforms
involved with capability desired by the warfighter and operator.
This integrated test follows a series of gatewayONE ground tests
that began during the inaugural Department of the Air Force
architecture on-ramp last year in December.
ABMS is the Air
Force and Space Force’s priority program to develop the military’s
first Internet of Things and is the services’ primary contribution
to Joint All-Domain Command and Control, a Defense Department-led
effort to securely connect all elements of the U.S. military–every
sensor and shooter–across land, air, sea, space and cyberspace.
Our Valiant Troops |
Veterans |
Citizens Like Us
U.S. Air Force |
Air National Guard
|
U.S. Air Force Gifts |
U.S. Department
of Defense
|
|