By Brian W. Everstine
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ABMS advanced from theoretical PowerPoint briefings to real-time “on-ramp” experiments, testing new technologies and solutions to prove real-world applicability. In September 2020, the second on-ramp experiment connected dozens of aircraft across the country, plus ground- and sea-based sensors, and culminated with a remote command to down a cruise missile threat with non-typical shooters, including a “smart bullet” fired from a howitzer and a ground-based AIM-9X. The goal of these experiments was to prove that the “Internet of Military things” is possible, and now in 2021 the next step is to make it more of a reality.
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“It’s just acquisition work,” Roper said. “It’s time for ABMS to start having procurement and operations and sustainment funding associated with it.”
The first fruit of that effort will be a
data pod that can be
mounted on a tanker’s wing and can offload data while fighters refuel.
This ABMS “Release No. 1” will debut in calendar 2021.
Here’s how that pod could work:
F-22s and F-35s operating without data links in an anti-access, area-denial environment, depart the threat ring to refuel; while tanking up, they
download new intelligence and orders that the tanker has downloaded from the ABMS cloud to the pod. Then they return to the fight.
“We have an opportunity with our tankers who will be airborne,” Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost said in an interview. “Why not have the capability to relay … line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight links to ensure that our tactical forces have the intelligence and support that they need while they’re airborne?”
The RCO will try to take sensors and data links that perform well in on-ramp exercises and build them into
pods that can be distributed to operating bases and quickly mounted on tankers as needed. Roper said the RCO is studying pod form factors, acquisition strategies, and data-linking technologies.
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