48 · MT 2/2023 Emerging Technologies AFRL awarded Persistent Systems a $25 million contract in 2020 for the WaRTAK (Wave Relay Tactical Assault Kit) programme, to be implemented over a four year period. The intention is to provide Air Force convoys travelling in austere environments with reliable, multi-domain communications and enhanced situational awareness. WaRTAK ties all connections – radio, cellular, satellite internet and GPS – into the self-forming, self-healing Wave Relay MANET. This enable users – ranging from individuals in an operational area to vehicles or aircraft supporting operations – to see, communicate with and coordinate the actions of friendly forces on shared digital maps in an Android (ATAK) or Windows (WinTAK) environment. As well as improved ‘blue force’ awareness, WaRTAK will identify hostile (and potentially hostile) entities that might present a threat. “WaRTAK is very complementary to what we are doing with ROP and, although the concept for the latter initiative certainly existed prior to 2020, the whole program has accelerated rather quickly to the point of an award being made. The Air Force clearly recognized that the nuclear triad required carefully thought out investment, given the pacing threat of China and the increasing uncertainty of Russian intentions. Something had to be done regarding improved battlespace awareness and so, here we are – a massive expansion of existing networks,” Robenhymer observed to MilTech. IRON, ROP and WaRTAK also support the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) programme, which the service doctrinally defines as “a proactive and reactive operational scheme of maneuver within threat timelines to increase survivability while generating combat power”. Which is, perhaps, an ‘officalese’ and convoluted method of suggesting that ‘forewarned is forearmed’. When astutely applied, ACE complicates an adversary’s targeting processes, creates dilemmas – both military and political – for the opposition and enables much greater flexibility of engagement for friendly forces. In prosecuting the ideal that ACE aims for, the USAF intends to “[re- examine] a wide variety of enabling systems, to include: command and control (C2), logistics under attack, counter-small unmanned aircraft systems, air and missile defense, and offensive and defensive space and cyber capabilities,” according to official documents. No small undertaking, then! “This is all about providing capacity within a large network,” Robenhymer explained. “Within a self-forming, self-healing environment, the network is permanently optimising itself – but the clever part is making that transparent to the user. We have transferred the burden of complexity to the network itself rather than the operator – and the use of an open standards interface helps with that”. The timing of this award, dealing as it does with empowering better security for strategic assets, comes at a particularly interesting juncture, as the United States watches carefully what is unfolding in Ukraine and assesses what lessons can be drawn from the current conflict to posit the outcome of future confrontations – particularly vis-à-vis China, which is not only the ‘pacing threat’ much spoken of by the community of Beltway Bandits but is also an increasingly technologically savvy entity. While the acquisition process does not work fast enough to support any contention that the recent incursions into North American airspace by Chinese balloons had any influence or impact on the procurement process, it nonetheless highlights the current fragility of some aspects of the security picture surrounding the terrestrial leg of the US strategic triad. As Persistent Systems points out in announcing the award, “IRON is also used with networked weapons, base defense, distribution of over-thehorizon communications for airborne counterinsurgency, and to support the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept for dealing with near-peer powers targeting large air bases”. The implementation of ROP has already begun, with IRON systems having already been installed across a number of missile fields. The implementation will continue over a 36-month period of performance. “With our easy deployment and robust network, we can enable the rapid setup of small, spartan airstrips manned by any number of personnel,” said Robenhymer. “ROP is just the beginning”. support from an operations center,” Robenhymer observed in a company release announcing the award. The scale of the ROP implementation also presented a challenge, albeit one that the company has overcome with deceptive ease. IRON – described as “an easy-to-deploy integrated MANET antenna system,” is mounted on fixed towers and poles to create a permanent Wave Relay MANET coverage area. To cover the required 25,000+ square miles, some 700 IRON installations are required, connecting 75 separate operation centres and over 1,000 vehicles operated by the security forces for the missile installations. It is easy to see, therefore, why the programme has been termed the largest MANET ever. The operational premise, by comparison, is simplicity itself. When fully implemented, ROP will provide security personnel in the field with the potential for constant communications, via the towers, to one or more operations centres. Similarly, personnel on duty in those centres will have access to location and tracking data for their deployed colleagues, following their movement and knowing their precise location, minute by minute, on a digital map, also known as the Common Operating Picture (COP). Both parts of the equation, therefore, can share critical tactical mission data, seamlessly and in real time, to enable information fusion, informed decision-making and rapid action when required. “The first step will be to roll out ROP across Malmstrom, Minot, and F E Warren Air Force Bases, with eventually more to come,” said Robenhymer in the 1 March release. “But IRON has other applications beyond situational awareness. It facilitates a fully digital battlespace that links multiple weapon systems and programs in a unified network. It provides the foundation on which a true Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) system could be built”. And thereby hangs the tale of interest to MilTech readers: the use of an innovative MANET facility – till now focused on providing facilities to developers and operators of unmanned and autonomous systems – as a cornerstone for a more integrated, holistic and widespread functionality. “This is exciting on a number of different levels,” Robenhymer told MilTech. “The sheer size of the network is one thing, and the opportunity to prime is an impressive issue to contemplate. Most important, though, is the fact that we are ‘hitting home’ – we are bringing technology directly to the driver’s seat, where it can make a measurable, quantifiable difference”. The company has supported the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) – whence came the origins of this requirement – for years. One of the AFRL developments of note – now lying at the core of an entire industrial ecosystem that is developing the concept further for both military and civilian applications – is ATAK, the Android Tactical Assault Kit, a suite of software that offers defence, security and emergency services operatives with critical geospatial data and allows users collaboration over geography. Identifying a critical need as early as 2016 for rapid innovation, Wave Relay displays can be integrated to a variety of mobile or static platforms, bringing connectivity “to the driver’s seat”.
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