Communications and connectivity focus of MAC meeting

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
BEDFORD, Mass. --  Connectivity was the key message presented during the North Suburban Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Council breakfast meeting May 3 at the Doubletree Bedford Glen hotel.

During a presentation on Joint Airborne Networks, Col. Anthony Genatempo, Airborne Network Division senior materiel leader, highlighted some challenges and also talked about concepts the Electronic Systems Center is working on.

"ACC [Air Combat Command] is realizing all these platforms are available to them, but they are not utilized to [the] effect they can because we don't have a pipeline," he said. "And this is not just for the Air Force but for joint forces as well - we need to enable better net-centric capabilities."

Speaking about strategic guidance ACC put out, Genatempo said he was "heartened" to see that it calls for dedicated communication assets. For too long, he said, the Air Force has been doing ISR with "comm on the side."

An analysis of alternatives was recently done on the Joint Aerial Layer Network and a recommendation that came out of it was to have dedicated common mode assets. Genatempo said the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, or BACN-like capabilities is the first example of this.

BACN is an airborne gateway that allows for interconnectivity between disparate communication systems.

Beyond Line of Sight Command and Control, or BLOS C2, is another example of work in this area that ESC is pursuing. BLOS C2 links air-to-air and air-to-ground by using pods on Reapers. The program kicked off in January and is anticipated to be fielded by the end of this calendar year.

He also mentioned some future network needs, such as connecting 5th to 5th generation aircraft, along with 5th to 4th generation aircraft, and emphasized the need for information sharing within and beyond anti-access regions.

"We need to be able to get the information out to the entire force and right now we can't pass [information] as robustly as we want to," Genatempo said. "We need to be able to bring the fight forward."

He provided an example of thinking of every aerial platform as a communications node, similar to cell phone towers. As drivers move between areas, they want to stay connected.

"Can we turn planes into towers as they go in and out of a region?" he said, while emphasizing that it would be a lot harder with aircraft than with stationary towers because the planes would always be moving.

"Users just want to be able to talk. They don't care how, as long as it's constant when needed."

Mentioning what is already in existence such as BACN, BLOS C2, Link 16, fielded gateway and SADL [Situation Awareness Data Link], Genatempo said the Air Force needs to think of them as the building blocks to get to a future Joint Aerial Layer Network.

"We need to look at what is out there already," he said, "How do we take what we have to make this work?"

He added that the Air Force needs to get into the net-centric ideology and then move to modularity and open architecture.

Following Genatempo's presentation, Claude Hashem, Northrop Grumman Corporation Network Communications Systems vice president and general manager, spoke on "Joint Airborne Network - Making Vision a Reality."

Hashem emphasized some of the same points Genatempo made but also added that industry is looking to provide "platform-agnostic architecture," as integration of a capability onto a platform can increase costs significantly.

He also encouraged working together on the connectivity issue.

"ESC and industry need to put their heads together to come up with the answer," he said.