Northrop Grumman [NOC] and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force (RAF) successfully completed a communications interoperability trial with the service’s F-35B and Typhoon FGR4 aircraft, the company said Feb. 15.
The trial, Babel Fish III, lasted for two weeks and was funded by the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD). It was conducted in airspace above the upper Mojave Desert in California as part of the RAF’s Exercise High Rider. Northrop Grumman said this occurred “recently.”
This test was facilitated via an Airborne Gateway developed by Northrop Grumman. The gateway connected the fifth-generation F-35B, which communicates with the Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL), and the fourth-generation Typhoon. It translated the MADL messages to the Link 16 format, the U.S. and NATO military tactical data link used by some military aircraft, ships, and ground forces to communicate and exchange tactical data.
The Airborne Gateway translates and relays information from multiple sources across different platforms and domains to increase interoperability, situational awareness, communications, and coordination for warfighters, the company said.
The F-35 and Typhoon can directly communicate using the Link 16, but before this trial they could not share certain fifth-generation information, Northrop Grumman said.
The company highlighted this was the first time non-U.S. fifth and fourth-generation aircraft shared MADL delivered data.
“Being able to network sensor data between fifth-generation and fourth-generation fast-jets and other battlespace assets in a stealthy manner is critically important to enabling the full capability offered by fifth-generation aircraft. We are pleased to have played our part in this successful trial, the output of which will help the MOD to broaden its understanding of the effect that can be generated by its fifth-generation combat-air fleet,” Andrew Tyler, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Europe, said in a statement.
This interoperability was enabled by including the company’s Freedom 550™ software-defined radio in the Airborne Gateway, originally derived from the integrated communications, navigation, and identification avionics suite Northrop Grumman developed for the F-35.
“I have been enormously impressed both by the collegiate effort to make the Babel Fish III trial happen so successfully, and the specific outcomes of the trial. This marks another great step forward in interoperability between our fourth and fifth-generation aircraft, putting the RAF at the forefront of this work,” Air Commodore Linc Taylor, senior responsible owner for the U.K.’s F-35 program, added.