Raytheon will unite American and Australian F / A-18E / F / G for a network-centric war with China
GENERAL TRENDS IN THE MILITARY STRATEGIC VECTOR OF THE NEW AMERICAN REGIME
Fully confirmed skeptical expectations about the future position of the "updated" Pentagon in addressing the most acute geopolitical issues of the Asia-Pacific region and Eastern Europe. All anti-Chinese election slogans of Donald Trump, as well as later notes on Twitter in the style of “Crimea was captured by Russia under Obama” are beginning to gradually make themselves felt not only on the social media pages and videos of the Western media, but also quite successfully implemented life in a new, more aggressive military-political line in the "hot" regions of the world. As a sign of consolidation of more rigid anti-Chinese rhetoric, the command of the US Navy was instructed to significantly increase its presence in the disputed part of the South China Sea in the area of the Spratly island archipelago. Now, instead of one or two Arleigh Burke class URO destroyers, there is already an incomplete aircraft carrier strike force led by the USS Carl Vinson and the DDG-108 USS "Wayne E. Meyer" aircraft carrier on duty at Biendong. On the transition to a strategy of permanent control over any actions of Beijing in the South China Sea, regardless of the opinion of the leadership of the Middle Kingdom, said 4 th AUG of the US Navy, Rear Admiral James Kilby, said on March 1.
In Central and Eastern Europe, the situation has also become threatening. Firstly, numerous units of the NE of France, Germany, Great Britain and the USA, which are armed with dozens of MBTs Leclerc, Leopard-2A6, Challenger-2 and M1A2 Abrams, as well as a similar number of heavy infantry fighting vehicles MCV-80 "Warrior" and "Bradley". The build-up of the armored “skeleton” of the NATO Allied Forces only a few tens-hundreds of kilometers from our border is brought under the notorious anti-Russian operation of an operational-strategic nature “Atlantic Resolve” (“Atlantic Resolve”). Ground units are not operating alone, and are supported from the air by British, German, French, Spanish, Danish and American tactical and strategic intelligence aviation, which is present in the region on a rotational basis. Thirdly, the M7A1 MBTs located at the 2th training ground of the US Armed Forces in Germany (the rear zone of the alliance) completely suddenly began to be equipped with dynamic protection kits for urban combat and increased survivability of TUSK (Tanks received ARAT-1/2 DZ for better survival in the conditions of the enemy using the latest versions of anti-tank weapons); about the same who in Europe has the best anti-tank weapons, you have long known. Therefore, we conclude that NATO is working on various models - “dress rehearsals” of the likely confrontation with the Russian Federation, while increasing the level of protection of its armored vehicles.
DETAILS OF TRAINING AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN FIGHTERS / AIRCRAFTES
For a successful confrontation with Beijing, Washington together with its allies on the "anti-Chinese axis", in addition to the traditional militarization of the APR, also develops many technological innovations, primarily related to the formation of a full-fledged system linkage in the tactical element of the Air Force. Such measures contribute to a marked improvement in the efficiency and coordination of actions between the friendly fighters of the United Air Force. One of these innovations, 24 March 2017, was reported by the Military Analytical and News Resource “Military Parity” with reference to the foreign edition www.upi.com. We are talking about the introduction of F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" deck-based multi-purpose fighter jets and EW F / A-18G "Growler" aircrafts into the onboard radio-electronic equipment of the US Navy and Australian Air Force of additional tactical information exchange modules at the level of two vehicles, a link, Squadron, or a full-fledged wing. The integrated stations will be designed to transmit symbol-graphic radar data received by the AN / APG-79 radar of one of the F / A-18E / F / G family of fighters to other similar machines.
For example, we have a combat operation in which the US Navy F / A-18E / F deck of the US Navy is to disable the Chinese X-Type 052D, which installed a powerful all-high-end anti-missile umbrella on the southern borders of the Spratly archipelago, hindering the delivery of KMP units USA to the islands. To accomplish the task, a link from 4-x “Super Hornets” with 16 anti-radar “Kharmami” on suspensions was sent, which should release a deadly arsenal on a Chinese destroyer URO from the 45 distance - 50 km and height to 40 m, remaining hidden behind a radio horizon in order to avoid return fire complex HQ-9. For this, the link of the assault "Super Hornets" will require target designation from third-party air-based radars, which may not be found on board the aircraft carrier in conditions of intensive hostilities with the People's Republic of China. The Australian “Growlers”, equipped with a tactical information exchange station, will come in very handy. Following the F / A-18E / F as slave machines (in the tail) at a distance of 60-70 km and an altitude of 2-3 km, the “Growlers” will remain outside the zone of confident destruction of the ship's HQ-9, but the Chinese destroyer will turn out to be their AN / APG-79 within the radio horizon. Due to this, the Australian F / A-18G will be able to give accurate targeting to the Chinese ship by attacking ahead of the F / A-18E / F, as well as to cover the AGM-88 HARM missiles launched by them with a dense and complex “shroud” of noise and barrage of electronic noise. Something like this might look like one of the simple scenarios for the joint use of modernized American and Australian Super Hornets and Growlers.
Currently, the American company Raytheon is implementing this option on F / A-18E / F and F / A-18G. Accurate data on the type of fighter-mounted tactical data exchange terminals has not yet been provided. However, it is well known that on the deck F / A-18E / F, as early as September 2005, a new type of information exchange device type TTNT (Tactical Targeting Network Technology, - Tactical Network Targeting Technology) was tested. Unlike the hierarchical model of the tactical Link-16 data exchange network, TTNT can carry out a full-fledged radio exchange of information packets in absolutely any configuration (for example, from F / A-18E / F to Aegis-ship or vice versa). Moreover, TTNT radio stations made on the promising element base have before Link-16 and serious baggage of other “advantages”, the main ones of which are:
- higher frequency range of work in comparison with “Link-16”; if the former is in the range from 960 to 1215MHz, then the TTNT band is within 1,755 - 1,85 GHz;
- the absence of a conflict with the frequency range of the “friend-foe” system, which runs just at the lower frequencies of the L-band; This conflict is considered the main disadvantage of Link-16;
- the possibility of stable use on aircraft (including high-precision weapon) with speeds up to 9000 km / h with the prospect of expansion to 14700 km / h;
- 17,4 times higher data transfer speed (2 Mbps vs 115,2 kbit / s);
- the ability to transfer any information over a distance of 560 - 600 km under direct visibility conditions, etc.
Among the shortcomings can be noted:
- the need to equip units with enhanced TTNT transmitters, since in order to maintain 300 range, miles (at the “Link-16” level) of a shorter radio channel, the transmitter power should be increased;
- a smaller number of supported subscribers, which at the existing level of excellence TTNT reaches 1000 units, while the Link-16 interface supports 32767 participants.
It is known that later the US Department of Defense plans to increase the frequency range of TTNT from 1,755-1,85 MHz to 2025-2110 MHz. The TTNT system is considered by the U.S. Navy and Air Force and its allies as the most advanced network-centric communications platform, along with a precisely targeted and even more highly protected Ku-band MADL radio channel. In the last command of the American fleet sees the basis for the secretive exchange of information between the F / A-18G and F-35B / C in the face of XNUMXst century air confrontation.
The American and Australian Super Hornets and Growlers can receive any of the above types of tactical data exchange modules, after which the fighters will automatically become part of the network-centric American concept of CEC (Cooperativ Engagement Capability), which includes NIFC- CA, ADOSWC anti-ship defense and NIFC-CU anti-submarine defense. This level of interaction between the deck tactical aviation of the US Navy and the ground-based aviation of the Australian Air Force will be no less significant a challenge for Beijing than the preparation of the Australian Avb Tyndall for the deployment of the American strategic bomber B-1B and Extender tankers.
Information sources:
http://forum.militaryparitet.com/viewtopic.php?id=15980
https://www.tonex.com/training-courses/ttnt-training-tactical-targeting-network-technology-training/
http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/apg79aesa/
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