By Ann Roosevelt
For the first time, Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) was on the Boeing [BA] AH-64D Apache helicopter using the Block III configuration, officials said.
“It was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the technical maturity of our product and get a sense of the challenges that lie ahead,” said Kanwal Mahal, Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS Platform Integration Director. “We are so far ahead of the learning curve at this point that everybody’s feeling very good.”
In late October, the Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS team began integration of the small airborne form factor radio with the Longbow Apache. This recent test also was the first time an aircraft program began work on AMF JTRS software defined radio interfaces.
AMF JTRS is expected to be an NSA certifiable Type 1 encrypted, Internet Protocol communications network that is to connect Army, Navy, and Air Force platforms, enabling joint warfighters to share real-time voice, video and data communications.
The Apache is the first targeted delivery platform under Lockheed Martin’s contract.
Mark Norris, vice president of Joint Tactical Network Solutions at Lockheed Martin, said, “the idea here was to get a little smarter on integration related issues for the Apache…to integrate that unit into the Apache’s mission computer, which is a big deal…as well as to the Apache on-board sensors.”
To demonstrate full integration, the AMF JTRS team performed ground checks, and ran operationally relevant functional check flight points to prove the system worked, he said.
For example, test points during the 120-minute flight event in Mesa, Ariz., included collecting data on network and application initialization on the tarmac, operational threads–video and imagery streams, chat and situational awareness–at 500 feet and 5 kilometers; network load evaluation at the same distances, a high speed RF evaluation run from 10 kilometers inbound; close-in video stream capture at 500 feet and 1 kilometer.
“The formal flight testing for AMF JTRS small airborne in the Apache isn’t scheduled until 2013,” Norris said. Now, in 2011, two years ahead of formal testing, the team is learning about what it takes to install the system into the mission computer and sensors and to verify robust data collection.
The recent demonstration was a risk mitigation test point, he said, to ensure low risk formal events in 2013. That also meant running operationally relevant scenarios, so the team knows, for example, what data needs to be collected.
Now, two years in advance of formal events, the system integrated into Apache was a pre-Engineering Manufacturing Development (pre-EDM), or pre-delivery system.
Another step that still must be taken is to add the crypto piece, since the demonstration took place in an unclassified environment. The team will probably re-run the test with crypto in a classified environment before 2013, Norris said.
The team must also achieve a production-ready installation kit, he said. The recent integration,which took only two and a half months, meant the aircraft did not have an A kit- -the hardware and power amp that goes around the radio. Also, the radio was not a production ready unit.
“This information that we gather is useful in helping us understand the maturity of the radio,” Norris said. “It also helps us understand better how we’re going to formally integrate this system in a production environment into Apache Block III.”
The Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS team has a funded time and material contract to work with the Apache community to better understand how to integrate AMF JTRS into AH-64D and understand the Block III timing for all of the key integration events. This provides real time support and helps answer questions as they begin integration planning, Norris said.
“We delivered out of cycle ahead of schedule a pre-EDM unit to the customer and they’ve since turned it over to Boeing Apache to put into their lab to run bench tests,” he said.
“The beauty of this is, is they’ve got a radio now and it’s in their lab and we have a contract with the government to support Boeing as they begin this integration test work in the lab,” Norris said. “All of those lessons learned then are going to feed back into the government and I think will result in some actions to Lockheed Martin through this time and materiel contract to support Boeing as they get their Block III integration.”
The Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS team includes BAE Systems, General Dynamics [GD], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Raytheon [RTN].