GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Technology trials aimed at solving problems encountered by USforces in Afghanistan
Boeing has demonstrated the transfer of target imagery between an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and a forward air controller (FAC) on the ground, over existing radio links. The trial follows US experience in Afghanistan, where special forces had difficulty directing precision strikes using voice communications.
In the trial, an FAC radioed rough target co-ordinates to the pilot of Boeing's F/A-18F technology demonstrator. The pilot then flew over the target, captured a sensor image, which was sent to the FAC for confirmation via an ARC-210 digital UHF radio. The FAC used a hand-held computer to view the image, annotating it to help the pilot locate the aimpoint, then sent the information to the aircraft for display.
"The focus of the demonstration is in two areas," says business development director, naval aircraft programmes, Dave Schweppe. "From the FAC standpoint, the focus is on 'precision precision' strike. They want to geolocate and designate targets with greater acuity, so they can hit caves and moving vehicles." A later demonstration phase will aim to improve the pilot's awareness of the location of friendly forces.
With increased precision, the time spent directing a strike aircraft to a target and the ability to differentiate between targets become issues. "An image provides greater situational awareness," Schweppe says. "By annotating an image, the FAC can tell the pilot to hit a particular corner of a building, and provide the target co-ordinates." If the pilot accepts the co-ordinates, sensors and weapons are automatically cued to the refined aimpoint.
Boeing's approach is to use communications technology that is "either inherent [in the aircraft] or available quickly", he says. The F/A-18's ARC-210 radio has a digital modem and the existing message format was used to send a compressed image to the FAC and his annotations back to the aircraft. Principal engineer Paul Tipton says: "We did not have to bolt on a new datalink to do this."
The demonstration used the electro-optical seeker of a Maverick missile to provide the overhead image, but operationally an infrared targeting-pod or synthetic-aperture radar would be used. "FACs are used to maps, so they like an overhead image," says Tipton. "And the pilot is looking at an image from the cockpit, not from the ground, where things can get lost."
Source: Flight International
