TESTED FOR TACTICAL COMMS

TESTED FOR TACTICAL COMMS



Navy Completes Evaluation of Next Generation of
Tactical Data Links, Clearing the Way for Production.

by Adam Baddeley, MIT Correspondent
 

DATA LINKS ARE THE SECURE INFORMATION FREEWAYS OF THE NAVY AT SEA. MANAGING MULTIPLE, PREVIOUSLY STOVEPIPED PROTOCOL STANDARDS TO ENSURE INTEROPERABILITY WITH LAND SEA AND AIR PLATFORMS AND AMONG PARTNER AND COALITION ALLIES IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE.

To ensure that the tactical data link (TDL) system onboard Navy ships meet that challenge, the Navy Operational Test and Evaluation Force recently completed testing of three systems. The Next Generation Command and Control System (NGC2P)/Common Data Link Management System (CDLMS) and the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) on Ship (MOS) were evaluated on behalf of the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I).

The three systems work together to provide a single system interface for all of the Navy’s key TDL. The systems were tested on board the USS Port Royal, and destroyer USS Hopper hosted NGC2P/CDLMS system with over 100 hours of operational-level testing undertaken over a five-day period. USS Tarawa hosted MOS with a new Link 16 terminal for a 19-day period, undertaking 430 hours of operation.

The testing was done in conjunction with a regularly scheduled intermediate training exercise involving the USS Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group and required coordination with the Air Force, Marine Corps and NATO. Intermediate training exercises involve multiple ships and aircraft, and are designed to evaluate a strike group’s capability to proceed to more advanced exercises in preparation for deployment.

“The effectiveness of our operating forces is largely determined by their ability to receive and process information, and then use that information to protect themselves and deliver their weapons accurately— to ‘put rounds on target.’ These successful tests are a major step forward in enhancing that capability for our warfighters,” said Christopher A. Miller, program executive officer for C4I. Full-rate production for the systems is expected this summer, with fleetwide installation due for completion in 2012 both on existing and new build vessels.

INCOMING THREATS

“The NGC2P/CDLMS system is designed to enhance the ability of Navy ships to be made aware of a common operational picture, including incoming threats. The system also allows Navy ships to strike targets over the horizon by providing improved connectivity, enhanced throughput and extended range of tactical data links, including Link 1,” said Paul Bobrowich, assistant program manager for tactical command and control systems, Navy Program Executive Office for C4I.

Bobrowich outlined a generic scenario in which the systems might be used. “Tactical data link systems transfer information quickly and securely between military assets,” he said. “Information can be sent via an orbiting satellite, an aircraft operating overhead or a system of ground links. These systems enable ground troops operating in Afghanistan to transmit near real-time information to a Navy ship operating in the Persian Gulf. The JREAP C capability provided by NGC2P is also used by the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system as a mission-critical communication link.” The MOS system is the next generation Link 16 TDL terminal and is designed to replace the older JTIDS terminals on newly constructed Navy ships based on the Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminal (MIDS-LVT) Link 16 receiver-transmitter, but includes additional software to allow the system to interface to the ship’s combat system.

The existing TDL system is the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS), a network radio system used by the U.S. armed forces and its allies to support data communications, principally in air and missile defense. JTIDS is one of the family of radio equipment that compose the JTIDS/TDL J system, commonly referred to as Link 16, which is a highly survivable radio communications data link that provides reliable situational awareness for fast-moving forces. “The final step for the MOS system is the award of a production contract, also scheduled for this summer. The system will be installed on new construction ships,” said Bobrowich.

Command and Control Processor (C2P) was developed at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific as a tactical data link communication processor designed to encapsulate data link protocol and interface processing within a single shipboard system. C2P serves as the interface and the data translator between the surface platform’s Combat Direction System and the TDLs. In the 1990s, the system was upgraded to the CDLMS, which brought the ability to control Link 11 and monitor links from a single display station. Bobrowich addressed some of the near-term improvements that have been implemented: “Recently, the C2P/CDLMS system was further upgraded to add Joint Range Extension (JRE) Application Protocol (JREAP) C. JREAP C is essentially the encapsulation of Link-16 (that is, J-series) messages into Internet Protocol packets for distribution over virtually any network.

“With the addition of JREAP C, the system is now referred to as NGC2P. NGC2P employs a satellite data link for the exchange of information. The satellite link reduces the reliance on airborne link relays, and will relieve current constraints on battlefield deployment due to line-of-sight and network saturation limitations in large combat theaters of operations,” he said.

NGC2P has now cleared its operational test and has been deemed operationally effective and suitable. NGC2P has received both Navy and joint certifications for operations on Link 16, Link 11, Link 4A, satellite TADIL J and JRE. It can operate on each of these links concurrently and serve as data forwarder between links. It has also received information assurance certification and has received authority to operate from the Naval Network Warfare Command, using the Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation Process.

The NGC2P represents the latest stage of the C2P system, the Navy’s shipboard data link processor, supporting a number of protocols that include Link 4, 11 and 16 and Joint Range Extension Application Protocol C. In comparison, when the original C2P was fielded in 1982, it supported just three TDLs. In addition to TDLs, NGC2P can use satcom to relay situational awareness information to users when line-of-sight and network saturation impair connection and latency.

The contract for the program represents an overall package that includes software maintenance, hardware upgrades, including supporting GFE sourced CDLMS software, and integrated logistics and in-service support. NGC2P works with the separate MoS program to access the dominant airborne environment.

NGC2P enhances and rehosts the Navy’s capability, explained Jim Miller, director of interoperable communications at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. “NGC2P doesn’t throw away the legacy C2P systems, it builds upon it in both a software and hardware sense. There is a field change kit, a hardware item that provides a different set of hardware that goes into the existing cabinets with the C2P, which allows the enhanced capabilities to operate.”

An incremental, flexible approach has been adopted for the program. “The government will provide tasking for individual work items, to make specific enhancements through the life of the contract. NGC2P in the software area has broad range of improvements that the government could task, but haven’t yet issued the orders for those individual tasks,” said Miller.

The duration of the NGC2P contract is five years, with items deliverable six to nine months from the placement of orders.

LINK 16 COMMUNITY

One of the biggest beneficiaries for NGC2P will be the Link 16 community, dominated in terms of platform numbers by airborne users, but also comprising a growing number of ground platforms and surface combatants tasked with the air defense role. Historically, Link 16 systems have been the legacy Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS). The current Link 16 terminal of choice, however, is the MIDS Low Volume Terminal (MIDSLVT), acquired through two suppliers: ViaSat and Data Link Solutions (DLS), a joint venture between BAE Systems and Rockwell Collins. A third minority supplier is EuroMids, which provides terminals to a number of European NATO partners.

DoD acquires terminals in lots shared roughly equally between the two U.S. companies. The ninth of these, released this summer, includes terminal types for the F-16, F-18 and E-2D, along with F-16 units for Turkey and Portugal.

“It’s pretty much a price shootout nowadays,” observed Bob Gabel, director of DLS representing Rockwell Collins. “In the ninth year of production, there isn’t a lot of discrimination between the two terminals. We are, however, always looking for ways to increase functionality and make our terminal provide more value and be higher value supplier.”

The MIDS LVT terminal is specified at a modular level. The teams can innovate and change those modules as long as they meet interface requirement and performance parameters for each of the individual modules in the terminal. The main result has been successive cost savings and manufacturability effectiveness from lot to lot, rather than providing more features or capability.

Changes at other levels do occur. Prior to this year, ViaSat has been the sole producer of MIDS LVT-2/11 ground terminals designed for Patriot Information Coordination Central and Battery Command Posts. With Lot 9, DLS is also tasked with meeting this growing requirement for the first time. These will be used at fixed and mobile ground sites and typically trailer- or Humvee-mounted, to support mobile TOCs.

“Over the years the ground market has really taken off, so DLS looked again at the market and decided it was a very viable market and made the internal investment in order to compete,” said Gable. “We innovate in the way we manufacture,” said Paul Baca, vice president and general manager, tactical data links. “Also, now that MIDS LVT has been in the field for a while, a big factor is support. Being able to repair and turn around and keep the users operational with minimal downtime is a key factor. We have undertaken a very deliberate systems strategy for increasing MTBF and reliability. We think we’ve done a fairly good job of explaining that to the customer. That has been a factor in users selecting us because it could help reduce their overall cost of ownership, rather than simply the cost of procurement of the terminals.”

The majority of terminals are returned to the contractor for repair, said Baca. “Each individual user has a slightly different maintenance concept. The Navy, for example, has an additional level in their maintenance chain, where they will test and swap out modules within a terminal. The USAF and other users, as soon as they detect a failure or verify that a terminal has failed, send them back to the factory for repair. We also have field support engineers who support our customers.”

Thus far, ViaSat has received orders for 1,923 LVT terminals excluding Lot 9, with 491 of the terminal ordered for overseas customers. Slightly over 1,500 have been produced thus far. DLS is in process of delivering more than 3,000 MIDS, with and additional 1,000 JTIDS previously fielded, not including the Lot 9 order. Data Link Solutions provides the terminals for the MIDS on ship, and is the sole supplier of the 1 Kw solution used on the larger surface combatants such as the Carrier, Ticonderoga and Arleigh Burke fleets. The system is not only for larger ships, but also command and control aircraft such as the AWACS, E-2C and AEW platforms. The AWACS and E-2 currently use the JTIDS solution, not LVT, but the newer Boeing AEW aircraft will use MIDS. For other naval vessels, a standard 200W MoS solution is used. MoS uses a single terminal, allowing it to listen to several Link 16 networks simultaneously, but transmit one at a time.

Explaining the differences between MoS and airborne variants, Gabel said, “The big thing from a functionality stand point is the 1 Kw power. The extra power is primarily used to burn through in the case of enemy jamming, or ‘fog’ in the air. Packaging is the other big difference because it has to be packaged specifically for ships, which because of shock and environmental requirements, are different from an aircraft, which in turn is different from ground platforms.”

MULTI-CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS

MIDS Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), the next iteration of the MIDS lineage, is scheduled to be delivered in the next two years, embracing the Software Communications Architecture and multi-channel simultaneous communication. It was planned to be a smaller-scale engineering change proposal to the single channel, non-programmable MIDS LVT when MIDS-J began in 2001. Due to its complexity, however, it subsequently became a fully fledged JTRS terminal.

Qualification of MIDS terminals will begin shortly, with completion of flight testing expected by early summer 2009. This is expected to lead to production items being delivered in 2011-2012. In parallel to this, the Air Force and Navy will imminently acquire a small number of pre-qualification, pre-LRIP terminals in two packages sourced from both from ViaSat and Datalink Solutions.

MIDS-J is expected to be acquired using a separate contract vehicle to the current MIDS LVT. The terminal is being developed in parallel between the two current MIDS teams. Broadly speaking, terminal design is shared between ViaSat and Data Link Solutions. Both sides are addressing the consequent integration issues. When development is complete, both teams will exchange data packages on their work and then compete for production lots.

MIDS-J’s schedule has slipped by several months. That has been primarily due to the need to certify a multi-level, multi-channel communications security program, something the National Security Agency has never been through before and a task that is taking longer than expected. This is further complicated by the fact this is an international program, involving a number of NATO partners with significant issues still having to be worked out between the NSA and its international equivalents during qualification. Once the development is completed, the industry team (DLS and ViaSat) will deliver a technical data package to the program’s European partners (Spain, Italy, France and Germany) so they can develop a national terminal. MIDS JTRS will initially be qualified as a four-channel terminal with only one of those operational, operating Link 16 and TACAN with additional waveforms subsequently added.

“As waveforms are added to MIDS JTRS and it becomes more than just a Link 16 terminal, we expect the MIDS J market to open up and sales of that terminal to increase significantly,” said Baca. Both teams believe that MIDS LVT will continue to be relevant. “The MIDS LVT has lot of life left for some people, because that is all they need,” Gabel noted. “MIDS-J will be for those who want to go to a JTRS phase and put more radios in a box.” ♦