By Renee Hatcher NAWCWD Public Affairs

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division AV-8B Joint System Support Activity (JSSA) successfully demonstrated a new capability that improves the Marine Corps’ communication system for its tactical air platforms June 11.

Funded by Joint Forces Command, Weapons Division used the StrikeLink technology to enable digital communications between tactical aircraft (AV-8B, AH-1W, F/A-18) and forward air controllers (FACs) to improve the speed and accuracy of close air support (CAS) missions.

Overall interoperability was improved because all aircraft used the same communication standard. This enabled new capabilities such as F/A-18 sending a digital CAS mission to the AV-8B.

‘‘The Strikelink/A demonstration is a definite milestone in the Marines’ CAS history. It represents an evolution in making Close Air Support safer, more accurate and timely; improving the response time in prosecuting targets with the ground forward air controller while reducing the chance of fratricide is a major achievement," said Col. Mitch Bauman, PMA-257 program manager, after observing the demonstration. "This capability needs to be fielded to the USMC operating forces as soon as possible.”

StrikeLink/A is an airborne variant of the existing target location, designation, and hand-off system (TLDHS)/StrikeLink ground system built by Stauder Technologies for the Marine Corps Systems Command. The TLDHS/StrikeLink is used by ground observers to plan missions and then execute them using digital coordination with tactical aircraft and fires assets such as artillery and naval gunfire.

The AV-8B currently supports digital messaging, but uses an obsolete messaging standard. The program has been searching for a cost effective option to migrate to the current messaging standard which is the variable messaging format (VMF). An early option proposed replacing the existing ARC-210 radios with ones that had integrated VMF capability. In addition to being very expensive to purchase and integrate, this approach meant that future changes to the VMF capability in the Harrier would have required changes to the aircraft operational flight program or replacing the radios again.

In a different approach, the AV-8B JSSA replaced the obsolete digital messaging system with StrikeLink/A. To the rest of the aircraft, StrikeLink/A appears as the old system. But, it passes digital messages to the FAC and other aircraft using the new VMF standard. ‘‘This means that no aircraft software modifications are required in the Harrier for integration of the StrikeLink/A system,” said Ron Salazar, hardware system integration engineer at the AV-8B JSSA at China Lake.

StrikeLink/A was also demonstrated by the H-1 Weapon System Support Activity in the AH-1W attack helicopter. To forces on the ground, StrikeLink/A will provide a single, standard way of communicating with other Marine, Air Force and Navy aircraft.

‘‘We expect StrikeLink/A will increase mission tempo by allowing the pilot to hit more targets in less time,” Salazar said. ‘‘It’s also safer for the pilot because he can be freed up to focus more on flying, and ground forces are provided faster and more accurate response to calls for CAS.”

StrikeLink/A is currently in phase three of a five-phase project. The project started in 2006 with phases one and two establishing proof of concept as well as lab demonstrations using lab commercial off the shelf based prototypes. Phase three was the technology development phase and produced a prototype hardware solution that is suitable for developmental flight tests and demonstrations.

Following NAVAIR approval, the StrikeLink/A project will proceed into phase four, production development, during which the design will be updated so the StrikeLink/A fits into the same location in the AV-8B as the replaced system. The final phase will be the procurement of fleet units with the goal of packaging the full range of StrikeLink/A capability, including video and an expanded VMF message set. Pending the necessary approvals, Salazar said StrikeLink/A could be in the fleet as early as 2011.

‘‘StrikeLink/A represents an opportunity to strengthen the collaboration between Marine Corps TACAIR and ground forces on the battlefield,” said John Gabler, director of research and development for Stauder Technologies. ‘‘When our Marines need help in a hurry, they’ll get it through the digital interoperability provided by StrikeLink/A.”

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