EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) —
The 53rd Wing carried out Black Flag 22-1, bringing collectively 4 branches of the U.S. army and the Royal Australian Air Pressure in a primary coalition check atmosphere to establish enhancements to night-one capabilities, Could 9-13.
As a part of the Air Pressure’s check flag enterprise, Black Flag permits the Air Pressure to check like we struggle, creating power integration strategies and discovering capabilities using current and rising materials to ship fight functionality to the warfighter.
As one of many individuals in Black Flag, the RAAF introduced the E-7A Wedgetail permitting the Air Pressure a chance to take a look at the operational integration capabilities the E-7 has to supply. Whereas this is not the primary time the RAAF has built-in the E-7 with the USAF, it’s their first time participating in a check train. The Air Pressure’s first E-7 prototype is projected to be delivered to the fleet in FY27.
Following Black Flag, the RAAF’s E-7 flew to Tyndall Air Force Base the place it took half within the 53rd Wing’s Weapons System Analysis Program-East, a premier joint occasion that evaluates a squadron’s capability to conduct air-to-air reside fireplace missions.
“This integration is extra than simply check, we’re creating the spine that can drive our techniques and communication capabilities in a wartime situation,” mentioned Maj. Theodore Ellis, Black Flag director. “So, if we get to nighttime one, we don’t have to teach everybody, the information will already be on the market and we are able to give attention to the struggle.”
A big goal of this Black Flag iteration was addressing automated long-range kill-chains and the way to make sure the applied sciences that assist them are operationally prepared and related.
In January, on the 2021 Weapons and Ways Convention, Maj. Ridge Flick and his group offered WATCHBOX and Tactical Radio Software eXtension, or Trax, two highly effective knowledge translation and routing instruments that considerably velocity up the info switch from sensor to shooter.
“A single intelligence hit in a database throughout our weapons college integration section usually might take 25 to half-hour earlier than it’s handed to a shooter on Hyperlink 16,” mentioned Flick, Air College Fellow assigned to the USAF Warfare Heart. “Now we’ve shortened the timeline by means of automated means to anyplace from 40 seconds to 4 minutes, and eliminated the errors related to people transposing data from one system to a different.”
Included in Black Flag 22-1, Flick and his group examined automated intelligence reporting utilizing Watchbox and robotically disseminated the reporting to 6 separate floor nodes and two Hyperlink-16 networks utilizing TRAX. The testing proved combining machine-to-machine communication and automatic intelligence reporting allows considerably shorter kill-chains.
“The Superior Battle Administration System will clear up some very essential infrastructure issues, however that’s projected for the future, and we’d like one thing that works now,” Flick mentioned. “Watchbox and different intelligence reporting packages, like SNAPGLASS, paired with TRAX are the interim resolution.”
Constructing off Secretary Kendall’s seven operational imperatives, the 422nd Take a look at and Analysis Squadron Command and Management, or C2, division created and employed a never-before-seen cell C2 ingredient throughout Black Flag that aggressively responded to 4 of these imperatives.
Sometimes called “movable not cell,” tactical C2 capabilities have traditionally been stationary in nature as a result of hours it takes to move the growing old cumbersome know-how that has been employed for the previous 20 years, in line with Maj. Paden Allen, 422nd TES C2 division commander.
In an effort to modernize, Allen and his group outfitted an SUV with business and authorities “off-the-shelf” know-how to assemble a tactical C2 ingredient that was capable of present command and management capabilities whereas on the transfer. Some examples of their gear embody a Kymeta antenna, assorted radios, ruggedized computer systems with servers, and Transfer Out/Soar Off, or MOJO, that offered further tactical knowledge hyperlink functionality.
“It is inconspicuous and if we would have liked to desert the car in a situation, we might accomplish that in lower than 20 minutes with all our gear,” Allen mentioned. “Via this modern functionality, we proved that we are able to arrange store anyplace with no setup time.”
Allen’s group executed two missions which offered tactical C2 capabilities that demonstrated the versatile and speedy mobility choices to and from the Nevada Take a look at and Coaching Vary.
This included driving the SUVs greater than two hours to reveal command over land in addition to airlift utilizing a U.S. Marine Corps’ KC-130 Hercules to a dry lakebed on the NTTR to copy deployment and extraction from austere environments.
Via profitable testing, the group found they may scale this resolution to a number of sorts of automobiles, probably enhance the variety of classifications of information they may work between and add further knowledge hyperlinks by integrating rising know-how. These options would enable extra integration amongst different forces.
“We don’t have time to attend for the latest weapons system, however we are able to develop a brand new tactic tomorrow,” mentioned Col. Matthew Bradley, 53rd Wing commander. “These built-in techniques that come out of Black Flag are how we’ll fight the pacing problem. All of it comes right down to who has the tactical benefit.”
The 53rd Wing’s subsequent check flag occasion can be a first-ever maritime Black Flag. The Air Pressure will accomplice with Marine Air Group 11 to give attention to long-range takedown of cell maritime threats. The maritime Black Flag will happen in June 2022.
