USAF to connect 4th-5th generation Fighters with "Talon Hate", MAPS, TTNT, and BACN

F-15C with Talon HATE pod

Boeing Completes Design Review for U.S. Air Force’s Talon HATE Program

Air Force Talon HATE program design review completed by Boeing - Military Embedded Systems

Boeing Completes Design Review for U.S. Air Force’s Talon HATE ProgramTravelandtourworld.com

Talon HATE combines information from fighter networks, national sources and joint command and control assets. Transmitting over data-links, the information can then be used by joint aircraft, ships and ground stations, improving communication and information sharing across the battlespace.


Boeing worked with industry suppliers to rapidly prototype the Talon HATE system for the U.S. Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities office within Air Combat Command. The Talon HATE system is designed to initially be carried in a pod attached to Boeing’s F-15C fighter aircraft.


As part of the development, the Boeing team integrated the Intra Flight Data Link (IFDL) used on F-22 aircraft within a proven flight communications system, called the Multifunctional Information Distribution System-JTRS (or MIDS-J). This marked the first time IFDL was integrated on the MIDS-J system, which is also used on Boeing F/A-18 aircraft. MIDS-J serves as a host for multiple concurrent communications waveforms that are essential for Talon HATE forward operations.

5th-To-4th Gen Fighter Comms Competition Eyed In Fiscal 2015 | Defense content from Aviation Week

The service has proposed a program, the Multi-Domain Adaptable Processing System (MAPS), to address this need with what will likely be a pod to act as a gateway between the two stealthy fighters. It is likely this will be placed on fourth-generation fighters such as the F-16 and F-15 families, thus putting a reliance on the involvement in these older systems to support communications requirements.

The operational concept would be for the stealthy fighters to penetrate behind the "bubble," or threat zone, of air defenses, and communicate with one another by transmitting data through the MAPS system.

MAPS will build off experience that the Air Force gained through the Talon Hate program, which aims to field four pods in the middle of fiscal 2015 to provide inflight datalink (IFDL) connectivity from the F-22 to fourth-generation fighters. This will allow for fourth-generation pilots in the rear of an air campaign to benefit from the tactical picture collected by the F-22 as it operates forward in a battle. Boeing is building these pods for use on the F-15C, which it manufactures.

At an estimated weight of 1,800 lb., the Talon Hate pods are expected to
be about 17 ft. long. They will include

• the IRST,

• a Multifunctional Information Distribution System (similar to Link 16) capability,

• a satellite communications capability and

•           an air-to-ground link.

Talon Hate is being spearheaded by the Air Force’s Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) office, a congressionally mandated program designed to foster fielding capabilities across various service offices. Air Combat Command declined an interview request on Talon Hate but provided a data sheet on the subject. Boeing deferred all questions on the system to the Air Force.

 AF TENCAP supporting warfighters through innovation, creativity

One example of an ongoing AF TENCAP program is " Talon HATE," which is a communications pod for carriage on F-15C fighter aircraft. The pod will combine information from 4th and 5th generation aircraft, national  sources and command and control assets. This data will be transmitted  over a common data-link for use by joint aircraft, ships and ground stations. The single operational picture formed by Talon HATE will  provide warfighters with a capability to more efficiently engage and  defend against "next generation" threats.

Air Force Fifth-to-Fourth Plan Questioned | Defense content from Aviation Week  

the service has two stealthy fighters—each costing more than $100 million per aircraft—that cannot effectively share data with the fleet  (or each other) without compromising the very stealthiness that drove up their cost.

The
MAPS program is seeking a way to connect
the F-22 (in background) and
F-35 (foreground)
to fourth-generation fighters, but
sidesteps a direct
fifth-to-fifth-gen link.
Credit: Lockheed Martin

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh challenged the service and industry to begin looking at a so-called “fifth-to-fourth” capability during his annual
Air Force Association speech in February. This refers to transferring data collected by the F-22 and F-35 sensor suites to fourth-generation fighters, the F-15 and possibly F-16, that cannot survive the most complex defensive systems. The operational concept would call for these forward, stealthy fighters to transmit data to forces outside the threat “bubble” of air defenses, providing them with an up-to-the-minute threat picture. Older fighters could then use Link 16 to proliferate data to other assets, such as intelligence platforms.

At issue, however, is a decades-long haphazard approach to data links. By design, the F-22 was developed to communicate only with other F-22s via the in-flight data link (IFDL). During the Cold War, the Air Force expected to have hundreds of the stealthy, twin-engine fighters operating against the most hostile systems. So communication would be limited but precise.

The single-engine F-35, by contrast, uses the Multi-function Advanced Data Link (MADL) system, which employs a different waveform and retains its low probability of intercept/low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) by using directional antennas and operating over short distances; the F-35 is slated for Air Force operational debut as early as August 2016.


The F-22 can receive on Link 16 and the F-35 can both transmit and receive on the system, but in terms of detection, data delivery via Link 16 is “like turning on a big light bulb in the sky,” an industry source says.


F-22s Won't Get F-35 Datalinks,Yet | DoD Buzz

the Air Force has been experimenting with a device that attaches on to the vaunted Battlefield  Airborne Communications Node (a system that translates information between the different types of
data links used by the U.S. military and its allies) allowing it to interpret data from the Raptor’s IFDL into Link-16’s format.

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2011/03/25/is-a-lack-of-secure-comms-keeping-the-f-22-out-of-libya-fight/#ixzz3DVVnH3cm

F-22 Enters the Network - Linking IFDL, TTNT, Link 16

two Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors tested a new method for universal F-22 connectivity with an experimental version of the Rockwell Collins' Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT). For the first time F-22 sensor data was down-linked to the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) using a tactical network. In a previous test performed as part of JFEX08-2 earlier this year, images were transmitted from an F-22 to an F-16 via a ground based gateway. Through this experiment, the new radio successfully sent classified sensor data to ground stations at Nellis and Langley Air Force Bases, which then relayed the data to airborne F-16s. According to Col. Moulton, the test provided essential support for further development of future. Battlefield Airborne Communications Node ( BACN) assets and a future ground mobile gateway are designed to support joint air and ground operations.