NNS020812-03. NAVAIR Team Knows Who's Who on Battlefield
By Jim Jenkins, NAVAIR Patuxent River Public Affairs Office
NAVAIR PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) -- Halt! Who goes there? Friend or foe?
The Combat Identification Branch of the Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR's) Identification Systems Division at St. Inigoes, Md., an annex of NAVAIR's Patuxent River site, knows how to find out. They design, develop and produce electronic identification friend or foe systems.
In past conflicts, identifying friendly forces from enemy forces in the "heat of battle" has been a burden for operational commanders as they planned and carried out their campaigns. One historical example of fratricide, or friendly fire, occurred in the Civil War when Confederate troops misidentified, shot and killed their own general, Thomas Jonathon "Stonewall" Jackson.
General Stonewall Jackson was shot and killed by a Confederate unit while he and his aides scouted for weakness in the Union line during a lull in the battle of Chancellorsville. Historians still argue today about the war having a different outcome if Jackson could have continued by Lee's side.
While many modern weapons are "smart," fratricide is still a great risk. Standoff weapons leave little room for error and mistaken identity. In the Gulf War, 34 of the 146 friendly casualties were caused by fratricide, according to a paper written for the Naval War College by Air Force Lt. Col. Steven E. Armstrong. That is 24 percent of all casualties received.
Another historically important act of fratricide in modern times occurred on April 14, 1994, when two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by two Air Force F-15s over Iraq. Twenty-six people were killed.
U.S. Navy ships use electronic friend-or-foe identification systems to sort out the identities of all the ships and aircraft in a battle theater.
The Combat Identification Branch is building units to modernize the fleet's capability to detect who's there, friend or foe.
"We have different vehicles in place for the quick production of our designs," said Tom Matthews, program manger in the Combat Identification Branch. "We have a lot of different capabilities. We've consolidated three different units into one that can be cross-decked on any Navy ship out there."
Instead of having a distinct piece of equipment hardware for every different type of ship in the fleet, the group is producing one box unit with an open architecture with the capability to run a variety of software requirements.
One box the branch built, the AN/UPX-36(V), has six different versions, each designed to meet a particular customer's needs. The result of the six versions, according to Matthews, is a complete system scalable to meet any combat identification operational requirement.
Automated target tracking, identification doctrine processing and multi-sensor integration are just a few of the capabilities of the unit that work to reduce the operator's workload and allow the platform to share information with other platforms in the battle group.
Not only has the Combat Identification Branch worked to reduce the number of these different units into one, they are currently working to reduce the size of their one unit. Designing, building and producing the units themselves is also a plus for the Navy, as the cost is significantly reduced.
"We're not just happy with what we've accomplished so far," Matthews said. "As technology evolves we're taking our box and actually putting it into a smaller form factor. If we can get the box smaller, you require less circuit cards, you're going to drive prices down. We'd like to give the Navy the most affordable and capable combat system out there."
As Navy budgets get tighter, but capability remains high, the problem is getting industry to build these systems with a limited amount of money. NAVAIR has proven the systems can be delivered for a fraction of what industry charges. An even better attribute is that the government retains the data rights.
Some notable differences in the units NAVAIR produces versus the systems they replace is the smaller box taking up less ship space, and the user interface. Instead of switches and knobs that can become outdated when technology changes, the units have touch screens which were developed with input from fleet Sailors. To add or delete a function, all that is needed is a software update.
"There's flexibility and growth built in to all our equipment," Matthews said. "We assembled a fleet project team down in Norfolk of about 70-80 Sailors, and we gave them the opportunity to have input in the final product."
The Combat Identification Branch builds what the fleet needs to help make a safer battle environment for friendly forces. And, they do it on their own terms, quickly and at a low cost.
For more information about NAVAIR, go to www.navair.navy.mil. For more Naval Air Systems Command news, go to www.news.navy.mil/local/NAVAIR.
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