Communication between fourth and fifth generation fighter aircraft recently took a major step forward as the Air Force successfully demonstrated a new secure networking system. Two F-15Cs carrying the Boeing-developed Talon HATE networking system shared information to Link 16, Common Data Link, and Wideband Global SATCOM satellites during flight testing recently at Nellis AFB, Nev., according to a Boeing release. The F-15s also were able to communicate with F-22s using the system, the release states. “This aerial network is a giant leap forward in tactical fighter capability with real-time connectivity and expanded information sharing,” Paul Geery, Boeing’s Talon HATE program manager, said in the release. The company will conduct additional tests on the system later this year.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
