Battlefield breakthrough with groundbreaking technologies

Citation

(2004), "Battlefield breakthrough with groundbreaking technologies", Sensor Review, Vol. 24 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2004.08724aab.006

Battlefield breakthrough with groundbreaking technologies

Battlefield breakthrough with groundbreaking technologies

Keywords: Radio, Communication, Sensors, Military, Communication radio

A team of the Aerospace/Communications Division (A/CD) engineers have come up with communications systems that led soldiers see, hear and know everything that is happening around them.

It was one of the worst miscalculations in U.S. military history. An elite force of American Delta units and Ranger infantry was dropped into Mogadishu on 3 October 1993, to abduct two Somalian warlords. The raid was expected to take an hour, but when two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, dozens of U.S. soldiers were trapped inside the city with malfunctioning communication equipment and no idea of where their friends or enemies were. A 15-h shoot-out followed, resulting in the deaths of 18 Americans soldiers and hundreds of Somalians.

Out of that terrifying battle came an acclaimed book and movie – Black Hawk Down – and an urgent call from the U.S. Army's research agency to defense contractors for communication systems that would perform in cities, buildings, jungles and other hostile broadcast environments. One of the companies that delivered the technology is ITT industries' A/CD.

Three groundbreaking technologies

After winning to solve vendor contract for the small Unit Operations Situational Awarness System (SUO SAS) in 1999, A/CD worked for 3 years to build 76 prototype radios that could be worn backpack-style with accompanying headsets and eyepieces to communicate audio, video and data messages.

The radios contain three breakthrough technologies from A/CD engineers. First is an intelligent waveform that can adjust itself to the current conditions.

“If the soldier moves into an environment with lots of interference, the waveform automatically adjusts the power and data rate so the soldier doesn't have to do anything to communicate,” explains Dick Schulman Senior program manager for A/CD in Clifton, New jersey.

A/CD also took the work and worry out of networking. With its dynamic networking system, there is no need for base stations – which cannot be built in battlefields, anyway. When a soldier turns on his system, it automatically joins the network of other users in a geographic area.

Finally, A/CD developed an extremely sophisticated method for tracking soldiers real- time location. Using time-of-arrival algorithms and triangulation signal-tracking, the radios can pinpoint and communicate the exact positions of everyone on the network. Even if some users are inside buildings where GPS systems do not work, soldiers can look into their eyepieces and see exactly where their fellow fighters are. The Army has also asked A/CD to adapt its SUO system for use in missiles, battlefields sensors and intelligent munitions. These defensive weapons would use A/CD's advanced waveform, networking and geo-locations capabilities to communicate with a central command, which can then make intelligent, informed decisions.

“It's a big leap forward, allowing missiles traveling 300 meters per second to react to quickly changing conditions, and for the sensors and intelligent munitions to communicate real-time battlefield conditions,” says Schulman.