How Australia Is Networking Its Forces

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | Feb 18, 2011 | David A. Fulghum

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How Australia Is Networking Its Forces

By David A. Fulghum

Canberra and Washington

Australia is integrating three new operational elements into its advanced, network-centric military—a squadron of Wedge­tail aircraft, the first two squadrons of F/A-18F Super Hornets and the Vigi­lare theater surveillance integration system. All are designed as the backbone of a small, highly responsive force.

The country is refashioning its armed services as the core of an international force—integrating a variety of foreign participants—that will be capable of responding to military emergencies or natural disasters.

However, this cutting-edge organization was envisioned somewhat differently only five years ago. The Boeing 737 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft had a 2006 delivery date, and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was slated to replace the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) classic Boeing F-18 Hornets as soon as they were available.

Instead, the Wedgetail’s radar was hit by a two-year delay for hardware and software redesign that has stretched into more than four years. The massive task of integrating many sources, services and sensor types caused a dragging out of Vigilare’s operational introduction as a surveillance fusion center. Finally, the U.S. slowed the F-35 JSF program and drove up its cost, which injected uncertainty into Australia’s budget-planning process.

These delays, and a change in government, have created big political and financial pressures for the Australian military. But it now appears that no matter how monumental the problems of the last four years have been, they are small compared to what would have happened without the program slowdowns, technology improvements and reshuffling of priorities.

Because the RAAF’s Hornets are aging, Canberra approved the purchase of Super Hornets as an interim aircraft between the classic Hornet and the F-35. Aerospace industry and military officials contend that without the Super Hornet to make the task of integration incremental, the shift from Hornet to F-35 would likely have become a nightmare of increased cost, complexity and schedule overruns.

The delay of two key nodes—Wedge­tail and the Vigilare air defense ground environment—rippled through the high-tech aspirations of the RAAF. Their absence meant they would not be in place for the workup of a network-centric force that could digest all of the F-35’s futuristic capabilities. To compensate for that delay, the RAAF acquired the Super Hornet with its inherent net-centric capabilities to begin the integration process.

“The [Wedgetail] dilemma for me was getting something into the field quickly while making sure we could resolve the technical issues and deliver the highly developmental elements of the radar,” says Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble, RAAF manager of the program and a longtime advocate of highly integrated, net-centric operations. “I decided on an incremental delivery strategy. We took initial delivery of the aircraft in April 2010, and we’ve been operating it in an initial configuration.

“That allowed us to get ahead of the game,” he says. “If we had waited until final acceptance [scheduled for the end of 2011], we’d be another two years behind the eight-ball. We’ve also been able to address some shortfalls in performance and set a path for longer-term improvements.”

The Wedgetail radar delay allowed the performance of the multi-role, electronically scanned array (MESA) long-range, 360-deg. radar to mature and new missions to emerge. Instead of making a uniform sweep at a given range as originally planned, MESA can focus the power output of the radar into limited sectors to markedly increase its range and the ability to detect small objects.

“We’re going to see full use of the electromagnetic spectrum,” says Bob Hendrix, chief architect for Northrop Grumman’s ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems division. “With this [Wedgetail and radar combination], you see a little slice of it. L-band [radar with its lower frequency range] is good for scouting for a couple of hundred miles. You can see a long way through weather and other conditions.

“To see fine-grained images, like dismounts [people] and individual targets, requires higher frequencies” like those in the X-band radars carried by Super Hornets and Growler electronic attack aircraft, he says. “If you go even further [up the spectrum], you can do visual identification of a person at short ranges. Think about putting information of disparate sensors into a combined picture. It’s hard to imagine what it will eventually look like.”

Wedgetail, Super Hornet and Vigilare lay the groundwork for an even more impressive force that is envisioned, if not funded, to include:

• The modification of 12 Super Hornets to EA-18G Growler configuration that can conduct standoff missions that include jamming and anti-electronics attack.

• The acquisition of an undetermined number of Boeing P-8 Poseidon jet-powered maritime surveillance and patrol aircraft to supplement and then replace the P-3 turboprops.

• Perhaps another two Super Hornet squadrons for precision, standoff attack.

• As many as 75 F-35-type stealth aircraft, which could be introduced in 2025. They would be used to penetrate some distance into surface-to-air missile defenses with advanced, longer-range, low-frequency radars that can detect small cruise missiles and stealthy aircraft.

• And, far in the distance, perhaps 25 penetrating, high-performance unmanned platforms that can deliver bombs or anti-electronic weapons into even the most fearsome defenses.

• All the airborne platforms will be equipped with active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars that have two to three times the range and require perhaps one-fiftieth the maintenance of conventional radars, plus the ability to locate very small objects and conduct electronic jamming. The Wedgetail covers L-band (good for detecting stealthy designs and cruise missiles), and fighters carry X-band AESAs for precision targeting.

Also waiting in the wings will be the U.S. Navy’s Next-Generation Jammer, an AESA-based electronic jamming and anti-electronics package designed for carriage in pods by the Super Hornet, Growler and F-35.

“Whatever sits in the pod, I suspect the RAAF is aware of the capability,” says Ian Thomas, Boeing’s president for Australia and the South Pacific. “If you look at Australia’s ability to return a decision faster than others, you’ll see they pay very close attention to U.S. development [efforts]. They’ve joined the JSF, P-8 . . . and a host of other [projects] and put people in the program offices to keep track of where technology is going.”

As for the possibility of converting 12 Super Hornets to Growlers, this is seen by a number of Australian military officials as a likely program addition.

Thomas was careful not to speculate about the RAAF’s plans for such a conversion, but noted: “They didn’t fit it for [conversion] by mistake. They made a conscious political and military decision to invest the money to wire the aircraft for the potential capability. Electronic awareness and electronic attack would provide Australia with the capability for a significant, non-lethal contribution to coalition operations.”

Australia’s network-centric systems also will link the new sensor platforms to the existing F/A-18 Hornet (which could be supplied with precision-bombing data digitally by AESA-equipped aircraft) and the P-3 maritime patrol units. They also set the stage for new generations of advanced technology.

“The technology is already here to produce photo-like radar images,” says Egan Greenstein, Boeing’s senior manager of business development for international surveillance and engagement programs. “We heavily leverage off what’s going on in the fighter and air-to-ground world. We’re going to be able to pick more metrics out of a radar return than ever before and overlay the physics of other sensors. The operator will see more details, and the machine will identify more unique facets of a target. The sophistication of sensors has grown to the point that we have to make sense of the intake and how to use it. That’s the transition going on in the AEW&C platform. The power and capability are there, so how do you exploit it?” he asks.

“Sensors are limited by physics, so they will [only] incrementally improve,” he adds. “Throwing all that data together—using fusion, some automation and tactical decision aids—is where the big leaps will happen.”

The opportunity to operate the F-35 stealth fighter and a high-performance unmanned, surveillance/strike aircraft design that may follow it also is part of the RAAF’s future.

“We will have a degree of flexibility [at the end of the F-35 buy],” Deeble says. “We will operate the Super Hornet through 2020-25, and it will be replaced by JSF or something JSF-like. That is the opportunity for Australia to consider other options, either variations on the JSF theme or things like unmanned combat aircraft.”

Here again, Deeble stresses the need to continue injecting advanced technologies into the RAAF.

“In the stealth game, having a capability like Wedgetail that allows us to meld offboard sensing with onboard data to create a picture [of the combat space]—that can be sent to a stealthy aircraft operating passively to maintain low observability—is where we need to go.”

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