Coalition exercise wraps-up focused on improving combat identification

  • Published
  • By Casey Bain and Staff Sgt Samuel King
  • Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team, USJFCOM; 53rd Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The scenario provides for a coalition team providing humanitarian assistance to a war-torn village receives heavy sniper fire from a nearby building where friendly forces were patrolling earlier.

Concerned about returning fire in a populated area, the team contacts the Air Force joint terminal attack controller to provide close air support.

The JTAC locates the threat and passes the location information to an Air Force F-16 overhead. The pilot receives the threat information, initiates a friendly force location request from a Combat Identification Server on the ground, confirms no friendly forces in the targeted area, and neutralizes the threat.

This demonstration of Coalition Combat Identification technologies during Bold Quest Plus, the two-week Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration at Eglin showcased innovative ways to enhance future U.S. and Coalition warfighting capabilities.

Sponsored by U.S. Joint Forces Command, Bold Quest Plus uses previous work conducted during Bold Quest at Nellis AFB, Nevada, and Ft. Irwin, California, in September 2007.

The 53rd Wing, headquartered here, brought in three types of aircraft from one of their geographically separated units at Nellis Air force Base, Nev., to take part in the event.

According to John Miller, USJFCOM's operational manager for Bold Quest Plus, "the purpose of this demonstration is to help provide warfighters with CID technologies that will maximize their combat effectiveness on today's asymmetric battlefield. We're trying to give our coalition team the tools that will allow them to sort through the dust and fog of war to be faster and more accurate in a gunfight."

A-10s, F-15s and F-16s from the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron and 132 personnel were brought in to help the international Bold Quest players demonstrate and evaluate new equipment, according to Maj. Daniel Weak, 59th TES.

A combination of Canadian, Marine and Navy aircraft will demonstrate equipment in the 53rd Wing's piece of the exercise. The equipment is called Battlefield Target Identification or BTIDS.

"Combined with the experimental Combat ID server, it's a complete hardware/software system used to pinpoint targets on the ground as well as identify friendly forces proximity and talk with other aircraft in the area," said Maj. Weak.

With the BTIDS and close-air support systems such as Link 16, Strike Link Alpha and others work to create a "wi-fi" network for the aircraft.
During the exercise, the 53rd Wing performs close-air support scenarios, complete with moving enemy vehicles and friendly ground forces. This will conclude their second phase of their tactics development and evaluation of multiple types of aircraft performing close air support.

53rd Wing's portion is done on the eastern part of the Eglin range. Then the Bold Quest players move to the west side to take part in the Joint Forces Command controlled scenarios.

USJFCOM's Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team and the 46th Test Wing helped host this exercise that ends on July 25.

"The 46th Test Wing also operates, maintains and manages the Eglin land and water ranges," said Maj. Keith Roessig, 46th Test Squadron command and control. "The Eglin Gulf Test Range provides approximately 120,000 square miles of over water airspace, covering the eastern third of the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida panhandle to the Florida Keys. The land rage covers 724 square miles and contains 51 specific test and training areas."

The demonstration's focus is on system testing and refinement of tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) through a variety of air-to-ground CID technologies designed to improve U.S. and Coalition capabilities and combat effectiveness.

"This unique combination of range and C2 infrastructure within the 46 TW, traditionally applied to developmental test objectives, has been adapted to support JFCOM's Bold Quest Plus exercise to generate test quality data in an operational evaluation of existing and emerging technologies," said Major Roessig. "Combining the data collection capabilities of the 46th TW with the operational analysis capabilities of JFCOM's JFIIT allows for a single venue to host multiple kinds of events at Eglin."

"The CID Server is a perfect example of how we could potentially improve our CID capabilities and combat effectiveness for our coalition team," said Bob Summitt, JFIIT senior analyst. "The CID Server provides the pilot with an on-demand request capability for friendly force location information. The pilot can initiate a request for friendly location information from the CID Server located on the ground and receive real-time situational awareness data in the cockpit where he can quickly verify friendly locations in the area of interest to enable a more efficient response to the ground commander's request for close air support."

More than 600 personnel participated in this demonstration including units from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and Coalition partners from Canada and the United Kingdom.

"The USJFCOM Bold Quest Plus and Eglin Air Force Base team assembled here to conduct this exercise has provided an ideal opportunity for our U.S. and coalition partners to continue their assessment of advanced CID technologies," said Jim MacDonald, 46th Test Squadron test engineer. "These technologies could significantly improve our ability to identify friendly objects on the battlefield and help enable quicker shoot -- don't shoot decisions that are critical in today's warfight."

"We're focused on the tools required by aircrew and ground controllers who coordinate the attack or drop bombs on targets," added Mr. Miller. "Ensuring that these technologies are built coalition interoperable will enable them to do that more quickly and effectively ... and will ultimately result in saving lives."