By Ann Roosevelt
Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) is participating in the C4ISR On The Move exercise at Ft. Monmouth, N.J. that runs Aug. 23-28, then static displays and VIP days in early September as part of the effort to advance multiple intelligence capabilities for the warfighter.
The AML aircraft, officially announced at the Paris Air show in mid-June, grew from discussions with military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq who said that while single intelligence operations help determine courses of action and provide eyes on target, many times the operational benefit really came from being able to cross-cue, or get the benefit of multiple sensors.
“One of the things we inferred from that was if we could come up with a flying laboratory–the Airborne Multi-INT laboratory–that really was that incubator of those technologies, to look not only at the science of that but the art of how do you manage multiple sensors and multiple collects within one platform,” Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems for Lockheed Martin’s IS&GS-Defense, told Defense Daily in a recent interview. “Then take those products from those collections and then align them to the customers mission and deliver him something not only to the ground, but to the edge where the warfighter can use it, that would be a compelling value proposition not only for our customers but also to allow us to serve them better.”
The AML test bed was developed using Lockheed Martin funds.
The Gulfstream III, produced by General Dynamics [GD], was modified for the sensor arrays–imagery, signals, and mass spectral technologies–as well as communications gear that would allow the aircraft to the ground and via satellite to the rear.
“We developed a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that would allow us to plug and play both hardware and software to configure those assets,” Quinn said.
“That required defining a rack-enabled modular infrastructure within the aircraft with a SOA-backplane that would allow us to insert those sensors and processors in a rapidly reconfigurable rack arrangement,” he said. Power, cooling and communications were added to present the information to operators. Outside the aircraft antennas and a radome were emplaced and adjusted and a “canoe” along the aircraft’s belly for sensor suites.
Today, the aircraft carries three operators, pilot, co-pilot and an observer or jump-seat operator, Quinn said. A total of six can ride in the back, four workstations and two observer seats.
The aircraft, with its range and altitude, can define an area and support it from “a relatively safe standoff distance, because of the way the sensors are configured and how they collect, he said.
“From an infantry perspective we’re looking at synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which is a foliage penetrating and ground-penetrating radar and does give you moving target indication on the ground,” he said. The plane can also be configured for state-of-the-art Forward-Looking InfraRed or Electro-optical/Infrared (EO/IR) for day and night operation. Signals intelligence domains including communications intelligence (COMINT), Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) and the mass-spectral, measurement signals aspect–one that is interesting not only to DoD but potentially to commercial customers.
Lockheed Martin has done internal research and development on how to determine, for example, if there’s a leak in the Alaskan oil pipeline that oil and energy companies or the Environmental Protection Agency might find useful from an aerial survey, Quinn said. AML could be configured with that kind of mission suite and flown in support of such missions. Mass spectral analysis of the environment can also be used by agencies outside of DoD.
A catch phrase in his division is “ISR to the Edge,” he said. “What we’re very mindful about is just having a powerful and world class asset like an AML is a piece of that puzzle, but to really make that information useable at the pointy edge of the spear…what we’re trying to do is to blend not only that collection of multi-INT information, process it and package it in a way it’s aware of the bandwidth and communications available on that aircraft so we can get the appropriate amount of information, size it correctly based on needs and latency and push it down to a ground station. Now that ground station could either be a dedicated one…or one that’s available over SATCOM to a rear echelon sanctuary.”
But that’s still only one piece of the puzzle. The next step is how to leverage ground and airborne networks like AMF JTRS and WIN-T and other emerging networks so data can be pushed through to that edge user, a ground soldier, or vehicle who needs it because he’s either in contact or he’s getting ready to turn the corner in harm’s way.
Lockheed Martin has already looked one part of the work, Quinn said. In June, at the 2009 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, the company demonstrated a Humvee with satellite communication assets and wireless technologies. This used smart-phone technology and ISR products such as UAV planning information, situational awareness information to a smart phone. The idea was how to get from that intermediate node to an edge node or user, how to right size the information and make it meaningful to the soldier at the edge.
AML allows the warfighter to expand his reach up to products that they traditionally might not have had access to due to distance or communications limitations.
“We are very focused on the integration of that capability as opposed to specifically limiting it to Lockheed Martin products,” he said. “On AML specifically we have partnered with FLIR Technologies, Rockwell Collins [COL], L3 Communications [LLL], so we have really reached out to industry to get the best capability that we can, and the partnerships, over time, can certainly be expanded, to bring in other technology or needs that our customers want.”
At C4ISR On The Move, the company is participating with the Intelligence and Information Directorate (I2WD), with which the company has a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.
“One of the things that we’ll be doing in collaboration with the Army is we’ll be flying the aircraft and collecting imagery and sensing information,” Quinn said. “Then providing it through our air-ground data link to a gateway which will then allow–and this is the important part in terms of establishing and showing that we can interoperate with existing Army systems–through our gateway, which is essentially a laptop, a node on that network, we’ll we providing information to the Distributed Common Ground Station- Army.”
Several Army and Air Force customers the company already serves have seen AML as it was under development.
“The first flights as an operational system [will be ]the first time the customers can see an operational mode,” he said. “We’re looking very much forward to exposing it more as we come on line with it.”
The company wants to hear from customers as to their needs, “because the value of a platform like that is because it can so rapidly be reconfigured to what their interests are, we kind of give them an extended simulation and test environment as well, where they can try out their new ideas and at the end of the day we hope that’s a win-win engagement for both the customer and Lockheed Martin so we can deliver on those needs,” Quinn said.