The Australian Air Task Group's (ATG) E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft was displayed at Australia’s main air operating base in the Middle East region for coalition partners, it was announced on 9 June.
Most of the attendees at the capability display were US Air Force (USAF) personnel. The ATG operates as part of a US-led coalition in the Middle East. It operates the E-7A Wedgetail as well as six F/A-18A Hornets and a KC-30A multi-role tanker transport air-to-air refuelling aircraft. The ATG also has personnel embedded in the US 'KingPin' Tactical Command and Control Unit and the Combined Air and Space Operations Centre.
Ft Lt Adam Nelson, E-7A Wedgetail co-pilot, ATG, said: ‘It was a great opportunity for us to further strengthen the network between us and our coalition operators, and command and control partners. It was especially good to meet those operating the USAF E-3 Sentry command and control aircraft, as well as those working within the 'Kingpin' US Tactical Command and Control Unit – between us and them we control all of the airspace over Iraq and Syria.
‘We’ve not only had E-3 aircrew and KingPin controllers; we’ve also had a lot of operators such as USAF F-22, F-15 and C-17 pilots. When seeing our aircraft inside and up-close, the USAF personnel seemed very interested in the technological differences between the RAAF E-7A and the USAF E-3 – being a newer aircraft means that we have a lot more system integration, leading to a different crew operating model. It was a good to be able to show some of the USAF aircrew – people we regularly work with while airborne – some of our capabilities and limitations first-hand.’
The airborne three-domain, the two ground-based and the ¼ ATR OpenVPX-based cross-domain systems were engineered to provide real-time security across multi-domain operations.
DARPA’s Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme was set up to develop an autonomous tactical network and enable critical data flow in contested environments.
Why space is an essential part of modern military capabilities
Defence-secure mixed reality headsets can save hours, or even weeks, of travel time to fix defunct equipment or get subject experts effectively “on-site” where they are needed.
The Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) and Drone Restricted Access Using Known Electromagnetic Warfare (DRAKE) counter-UAS (CUAS) systems are mounted and dismounted RF jammers.
Adarga’s Vantage information analysis tool is in service with the UK MoD and individual UK forces. It builds on the company’s Knowledge Platform which processes, organises and analyses open source material, as well as information held by the user’s military, security and intelligence services.
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