Paul Revere makes program history by taking part in Red Flag

  • Published
  • By Monica D. Morales
  • ESC Public Affairs
Hanscom AFB, Mass. --  The "Paul Revere" Boeing 707 Test Aircraft debuted at its first Red Flag exercise Aug. 27-31, marking the first time in the program's history that the experimental aircraft took part in an operational exercise.

"Having the opportunity to participate in Red Flag for the first time really allowed the Paul Revere team to showcase its capabilities and hone its skills in an operational environment," said Maj. Chris Dennison, commander of the 630th Electronic Systems Squadron's Test and Integration Flight.

Red Flag is a joint and coalition forces exercise held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., which is designed to test aircrew war-fighting skills in realistic combat situations. The Paul Revere team, sponsored in this case by Hanscom AFB's 653rd Electronic Systems Group, was composed of seven Air Force and 50 MIT Lincoln Laboratory personnel.

"The atmosphere of Red Flag is really high energy, and the cadre there did a good job of challenging everyone from day one," said Capt. Derek Dwyer, 630 ELSS Test and Integration Flight deputy commander. "The expectation is that you will be challenged until you break so that you know your limits and know what it means to go beyond them."

The Paul Revere aircraft is a Boeing 707 airborne networking test bed operated and maintained by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory that flight-tests airborne networking equipment and captures imagery and moving target indications with its Synthetic Aperture Radar.

This space-based radar located in the nose of the aircraft collects data, which is processed in minutes on board and transferred to ground units over a broadband airborne network. The aircraft's radiator-sized, space-based radar is a scaled down version of the type that the SBR program plans to use.

Once the information is transferred to these units, it allows for the identification and location of potential hostile assets on the ground for cueing of strike assets.

Providing exercise ISR
It's these very capabilities that made the aircraft a perfect fit to meet the needs of Red Flag's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance training requirements.

"Without ISR assets, the exercise's Combined Air Operations Center used old pictures and non-real time images provided by the exercise cadre," Major Dennison said. "With Paul Revere there, the CAOC exercise participants had near-real-time imagery to analyze and potentially act upon."

The images were also used for Battle Damage Assessment of live bomb drops from minutes earlier, and by the exercise intel analysts to prepare for the next night's targets.

According to Maj. Dennison, the Paul Revere's participation carried with it two missions.

As the only airborne ISR asset to provide the Combined Air Operations Center at Nellis, or CAOC-N, with imagery meant that the aircraft would use its SAR to collect the necessary battlefield images required to keep a consistent exercise rhythm against Red, or enemy, Forces.

"The imagery we sent down was lauded by the CAOC operators," Major Dennison said. "These real-time images were something that they were able to re-enter into the dynamic tasking process."

Paul Revere provided between seven and 10 high-quality SAR images each night to the CAOC-N's Battle Staff, allowing it to coordinate striker re-attacks and plan the next day's Air Tasking Order.

Testing airborne networking systems
Additionally, falling further in line with the ISR mission, the Paul Revere provided the appropriate backdrop for MIT/LL and contractor Airborne Networking's Cooperative Research and Development Agreement engineers and scientists to accomplish a host of airborne communication tests. This included testing high-bandwidth and line of sight and beyond line of sight airborne networking systems.

Part of this included ensuring a secure link to CAOC-N that allowed for secure command and control chat from the center itself to the aircraft, cutting anywhere from five to 10 minutes out of the tasking process and reducing the errors inherent in passing the tasks over voice frequencies.

"Our planners could start determining what orbit adjustments we would need to capture new targets should it be determined that the tasking would be directed at us," Major Dennison said. "That meant that if the tasking did come at us, we would already know if we could image the target and then relay the new orbit to the flight crew and prepare the radar crew to capture the image."

Overcoming exercise obstacles
The team's participation didn't come without its intended challenges.

The experimental aircraft wasn't necessarily designed to endure the Nevada desert heat, which is known to reach well above 100 degrees. The Red Forces also introduced GPS jamming, which added new issues for the crew to overcome.

Additionally, this exercise came with a targeting twist. While previous exercises, such as Empire Challenge, let radar experts fine tune their skills in capturing imagery and meeting quick air-to-ground download times using designated, pre-planned targets, Red Flag inserted the variable of changing high priority targets in a mix of already-planned ones.

"At Red Flag you are given a new dynamic tasking to image, which suddenly becomes your highest priority target," the major said. "The targeting directors must then determine a new route based on a pre-defined set of points coordinated with the pilots, and then coordinate with the pilots and radar operators to make sure the aircraft and radar can capture the image. Then you go back to capturing your regular pre-planned targets."

Helping the warfighter
After seven nights of working 12 to 16 hours, the Paul Revere team left knowing it provided valuable training for the CAOC-N and intel analyst exercise participants.

Furthermore, it tested and demonstrated critical new airborne networking technologies that will ensure warfighters have Air Dominance -- minimizing the kill chain for high-priority, fleeting targets.

"We are very proud of the heightened performance and the fantastic efforts of the Air Force and Lincoln Lab team. Red Flag truly tested these systems and crew like no other event," Major Dennison said. "The team raised the bar of the Paul Revere Boeing 707 capabilities, airborne networking, and the Space Based Radar concept of operations."