Revitalizing the Air Force's Aging Four Horsemen.

AuthorJohnson, John C.
PositionViewpoint

Today's battlefield requires a fully interoperable grid and near instantaneous data sharing. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information sharing and exploitation with strike platforms has become a mainstay of the modern battlefield.

Sensor system architecture on ISR platforms is a composite of numerous subsystems interleaved into an integrated modular avionics suite. Their information products empower warfighters with a technological battlefield advantage.

It is assumed that as systems age, they become obsolete. In many cases, that is correct, but not for Compass Call, JSTARS, AWACS and Rivet Joint, the U.S. Air Force's four horsemen of the battlefield. In fact, field commanders and intelligence organizations over the years have come to depend more heavily on these four sensor systems for situational awareness in the airborne, ground and surface environments.

As these four assets move through the decades, their importance grows, but their platforms age--exceptional daily maintenance and timely depot refurbishments have their limits. Thus, mission readiness is jeopardized. The recent Air Force decision to rehost the Compass Call system on a newer platform opened discussion on all four assets.

Here are some optimal strategies for recapitalizing each of the four horsemen.

Compass Call, a tactical command, control and communication countermeasures system, identifies opposing forces' lines of communication and disrupts those links, nullifying the opposition's ability to issue orders and allocate power.

The agility of combatant forces is severely hampered with the loss or degradation of communications necessary to reposition forces and employ alternative engagement tactics. Compass Call has proven its worth since initial operating capability was achieved in 1983. Whereas its value grows with each deployment and mission and the system of systems value increases with each passing year, the host aircraft become more difficult to maintain. Some aircraft have been flying for half a century and present tremendous maintenance challenges.

For the Compass Call rehost, the Air Force required the principal sensor system provider to identify an appropriate new platform. To reduce development expenses associated with moving to a new platform, the Air Force stipulated that the platform should be commercially available and capable of being missionized for military and system application.

This acquisition strategy was used previously for the Joint...

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