The U.S. Air Force Test Center (AFTC) at Edwards AFB, Calif., plans to buy telemetry transmitters for Edwards’ RB-1B Data Lab in advance of hypersonic weapon testing. The data lab is a retired B-1B bomber for Air Force system integration tests.
Ohio-based Quasonix supplies “telemetry transmitters, analyzers, receivers, and accessories”–“highly specialized components required to support the High-Speed Systems Test (HSST) program via the Universal Beamforming Telemetry (UBT) project,” according to an Aug. 23 business notice.
California-based Creative Digital Systems Integration, Inc. (CDSI, Inc.) designed UBT, which is to demonstrate “enhanced range capabilities using NASA’s Global Hawk USA to track and re-radiate telemetry transmissions from hypersonic vehicles,” the notice said. “This will eliminate the need for expensive sea-based (i.e., ships) tracking systems throughout the South Pacific. It is paramount that these units be inter-operable with existing Global Hawk system components. In addition, these units must be compatible with units already on-hand and currently used by the system developer (CDSI Inc.).”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, has wanted to base the SkyRange hypersonic tracking effort, using retired Air Force MQ-9s and Block 20 and Block 30 RQ-4 Global Hawks, at Grand Sky N.D. (Defense Daily, Oct. 20, 2021). DoD’s Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) and Huntsville, Ala.’s Integration Innovation Inc.‘s (i3) are teamed on SkyRange.
“Currently, DoD uses an aging fleet of ships deployed across a Pacific Ocean corridor to test hypersonic missiles,” Hoeven’s office has said “DoD is only able to conduct four to six tests per year, as it takes several weeks to deploy and position the ships for each test. Additionally, this process signals the testing schedule to our adversaries. SkyRange would replace the ships, which are expensive to operate, with modified Global Hawks that could deploy quickly and increase testing capacity through the creation of additional testing corridors in the Pacific and elsewhere.”
On Aug. 30, TRMC is to hold an event at the Grand Sky Business and Aviation Park. “As the SkyRange hypersonic missile testing program comes closer to reality, we want to keep you up to date on the massive opportunity this represents for the region,” the TRMC invitation says.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] builds the RQ-4 Global Hawk and General Atomics the MQ-9.