Old sensors can learn new tricks.

• Author: Parsons, Dan
• Position: Inside Science + Technology

* An array of sensors have over the years been developed for helicopters, but these systems don't always work well together. And they often do not transmit information to commanders on the ground.

A new consortium of defense companies is hoping to give pilots situational awareness and threat-response systems that are greater than the sum of their parts. It is one of many efforts to make troops at all levels better able to share information using existing sensors. The program also could be a bargain for a cash-strapped Defense Department, as it would provide expanded capabilities without the cost of buying new equipment.

Dozens of defense and technology firms have teamed up to create the Future Airborne Capability Environment, or FACE. The consortium is trying to arrive at a system that will do for the digital battle space what Windows does for PCs.

"That's the goal of FACE, to create this interface with which multiple sensors and software can seamlessly plug and play," said Donald Breen, Northrop Grumman's director of land forces market development. "We want to maintain affordability, maintain modularity and use the equipment that the government has out there right now."

Led by Navy Air Systems Command and Army Aviation, the consortium includes 100 different companies collaborating on a set of technical standards for digital interoperability.

Maj. Gen. Tim Crosby, program executive officer of Army Aviation, has called FACE "exactly the kind of government-industry cooperative effort needed to ensure that Army Aviation keeps pace with the speed of information technology development."

Interoperability is an issue that most of the services are tackling on a strategic level. The Marine Corps is particularly interested in keeping tabs on and communicating with its troops during expeditionary operations. The Navy is wrestling with making ships and combat aircraft talk to each other over a secure network.

For now, FACE is focused on cutting through the fog of war at the "pointy end of the sword," said Breen.

That's the aim of programs like the Rotorcraft Avionics Innovation Laboratory--an industry collaborative co-founded by Northrop Grumman that includes other defense industry heavy hitters like Harris Corp., FUR Systems Inc., L3 Communications and BAE Systems.

The various participants have poured $15 million into RAIL over five years of research into helicopter survivability.

They include syncing threat-warning and sensor systems into a cohesive...