Northrop Grumman Demos Safe In-Flight Information Hyperlinks
Northrop Grumman’s optionally manned Firebird
Northrop Grumman picture
PALMDALE, Calif. – Northrop Grumman says it has demonstrated in-flight connectivity that shall be essential for army communications in contested environments.
Throughout a check flight this summer time, the corporate related a analysis plane with an unmanned aircraft to commerce info with low likelihoods of interception or detection, officers stated. The info hyperlink may very well be essential for the Pentagon’s joint all-domain command and management, or JADC2, effort, which is the army’s venture to attach sensors and shooters within the coming years, stated Tom Pieronek, chief expertise officer and vice chairman of analysis and expertise at Northrop.
The high-altitude, long-endurance drone Proteus — manufactured by Scaled Composites — used a Firebird as a surrogate unmanned aerial system to run an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance simulation.
The Firebird was capable of move optical information a couple of goal on the bottom to Proteus and publish the data on a cloud-based 5G community testbed by means of a novel prototype multi-level safety change, Pieronek stated.
“The flight demonstration is the primary integration of a brand new mission-specific army transceiver, multi-level safety information switches, and open structure wide-area networking,” in keeping with an announcement.
The demonstration was essential for getting information into the system so the corporate might check the expertise extra, he stated.
Fashionable expertise, such because the superior information hyperlink, is essential for the Pentagon’s want for info overmatch, he stated. It is going to assist advance the Protection Division’s JADC2 effort.
The potential may very well be particularly helpful within the Indo-Pacific area due to the good distances that army plane usually must journey, in keeping with the corporate. The area is anticipated to change into extra extremely contested as near-peer competitor China invests in army capabilities.
Northrop Grumman first began engaged on the expertise in 2019 and carried out a demo of the aperture mannequin expertise, Pieronek famous. In 2020, it superior the safe change for the plane and built-in the 5G capabilities in early 2021.
Matters: Infotech