Clean Earth Technologies has delivered the first of eleven Ku Band digital data link communication systems to Northrop Grumman. The full-duplex data link will be installed on NGC's "LITENING" advanced targeting pod.
The remaining systems will be installed on various airborne and ground platforms as part of a larger cooperative U.S. Marine Corp/Northrop Grumman demonstration program this December.
CET's airborne and ground data link systems, allow secure air-to-ground and ground-to-air communications, including critical targeting and surveillance imagery and video, to be delivered to the proper U.S. Forces.
The data links are integrated with miniature computer servers that can store 20 ¿ 100 GB of information, as well as house advanced communications software in support of theater wide Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Network-Centric-Warfare (NCW) initiatives.
Bob Morgan, co-founder and executive vice president for CET, said in a statement that "these data links are the next advancement in improved sensor-to-shooter cycle time and are one of the enabling technologies that, when integrated with Northrop Grumman's Advanced Information Architecture (AIATM) software, will help in the move toward network centric warfare."
Later this year, these airborne and ground data link systems will be demonstrated for the U.S. Marine Corps as part of a program led by Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector and Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems Defensive Systems Division.
The program will demonstrate a self-organizing, adhoc network that will act much like Google in the sky, enabling Marines across the battlespace to, among other things, request and receive information from other platforms, even those beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS).
Morgan added that data link technology has gone from point-to-point, to point-to-multipoint and now to network enabled, in a relatively short time.
"The future for U.S. Forces, where essentially every asset in the battlespace can be a node on a network, capable of transmitting and receiving critical information, is upon us. While there are still large administrative and implementation issues in front of us, the vast majority of the enabling technology is available now", said Morgan.
