Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and DARPA have performed a series of flight tests demonstrating a system of systems (SoS) approach that enables improved integration across air, space, land, sea and cyber in contested environments.
The demonstrations, held at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, were a part of a five year DARPA programme called System of Systems Integration Technology and Experimentation (SoSITE). The flight tests demonstrated interoperability between a ground station, flying test bed, a C-12 and flight test aircraft, proving the ability to transmit data between those systems using an integration technology called STITCHES.
The test used an open system architecture mission computer known as the Einstein Box developed by Skunk Works as the open computing environment, providing security protections between systems.
The Einstein Box enables rapid and secure experimentation before deploying the capability to operational systems. The team demonstrated the ability to automatically compose and transmit messages between systems, including using legacy datalinks. This was the first use of non-enterprise data links to create new, rich information exchanges in-flight through Link-16, enabling greater speed, agility, modernisation and effectiveness.
The team also demonstrated the ability to link ground based cockpit simulators with live aircraft systems in real time to demonstrate how an SoS approach reduces data-to-decision timelines; as well as integration between the APG-81 radar and DARPA's automatic target recognition software to reduce operator workload and create a comprehensive picture of the battlespace.
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