JADC2 system demoed in contested SATCOM environment with NGC
NewsFebruary 16, 2021
UNITED KINGDOM. Northrop Grumman Corporation’s UK team demonstrated its command and control (C2) system in a denied satellite communications (SATCOM) environment during NATO’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXercise (CWIX 2020).
According to officials, the fully distributed virtual event connected force labs in the UK and the U.S. across the classified Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network to test tactics and technology in a range of scenarios and SATCOM-denied environments.
As the industry lead for this task supporting CWIX 2020, Northrop Grumman UK teamed with Dstl and Thales UK to create a simulated network environment. Northrop Grumman installed its Interoperable C4I Services (ICS) product to deliver track management capabilities on this simulated alternative beyond-line-of-sight communications network.
Defense officials agree that SATCOM remains essential to Joint, All Domain, Command and Control (JADC2) but faces challenges in a denied, degraded, or disrupted space environment. In these contested environments, joint forces must maintain the ability to share actionable information despite their lower bandwidth, higher-latency and inconsistent quality-of-service compared to communications satellites.
