During a multi-service, multi-national exercise last month, Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., was able to verify that the new Mode 5-capable interrogator installed on a NATO E-3 AWACS had interoperability with all participants. According to an Aug. 21 release, the Joint Operational Test Approach Operational Assessment provided six-hour combat scenarios that pitched the prototype interrogator against a variety of platforms—fixed and rotary wing aircraft and ships enabled with their own Mode 5 capabilities. Capt. Will Williams, ESC’s Next Generation Friend or Foe program manager, explained that different vendors often interpret specifications “differently.” Williams said the exercise also showed that the AWACS Mode 5, with a little modification of codes by Danny Lopez, with the Cryptologic Systems Group at Lackland AFB, Tex., could correctly identify friend from foe. (Hanscom report by Monica Morales)
The Pentagon is readying a slew of reforms to its acquisition practices designed to speed up the military’s process for buying weapons and systems and structure its program offices to prioritize competition and commercial capabilities, according to a draft memo.
