Twenty years after first being contracted, the RAAF’s
Vigilare air defence command and control system (Project Air 5333) has achieved
final operational capability (FOC); one suspects with sighs of relief from all
concerned.
FOC was declared in February and the system now in service
is arguably the best of its type anywhere; a key element in the ADF’s
network-centric capability, receiving, processing and fusing a mass of
information from more than 240 interfaces drawing on Australian and foreign
networks, systems and sensors.
These include military and civil air traffic control
microwave radars and Link 11 and Link 16 tactical data networks, together with
inputs from specialised data sources such as the Jindalee Operational Radar
Network (JORN), Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, air
warfare-capable RAN ships, and intelligence information from a number of
agencies.
Vigilare correlates this material in real time to help
compile the ADF’s Recognised Air Picture (RAP) across Australia’s area of
interest, which stretches from the mid-Indian Ocean to the western Pacific.
“Given the number of different elements in Vigilare it’s
difficult to benchmark against similar systems,” Lee Davis, Vigilare program
manager for prime contractor Boeing Defence Australia said. “But based on the
very comprehensive suite of datalink interfaces and the informal discussions
we’ve had with our counterparts in the US and UK, there’s a reasonable argument
that it’s certainly world class, and world-leading in that aspect.”
Apart from the sophisticated tactical data link integration
and associated human-machine interface, Vigilare is regarded more as an
evolutionary advance than a quantum leap in technology over the more federated
Warden system that it has replaced.
However, the system now provides unprecedented flexibility
and reach, while its open architecture design means it can be expanded as
required to integrate developments in areas such as satellite and UAV imagery,
electronic and signals intelligence, and space-based infrared systems.
For the operators, Vigilare furnishes an adaptable system
that can be tailored to meet operational requirements. Fighters (and other Link
16-equipped aircraft) can be controlled without any voice communications, the
intercept vector being automatically transmitted to generate steering cues in
head-up displays.
In addition, Vigilare provides an interactive replay and
simulation capability that enables both real and fictional scenarios to be
recorded and replayed multiple times, enabling users to interact with these
replays to enhance both operator training and strategic planning.
While the human-machine interface is built off the same
framework as utilised in Warden, under the older system sensors were controlled
at the sensor site while with Vigilare, control of both sensor and
communications assets is integrated into the Vigilare operator’s console. This
advance draws on and enhances the system manager concept developed earlier by
Boeing in its role as prime contractor for JP 2043 High Frequency
Modernisation.
The capability furnished by Vigilare has been long in
coming.
The long path
In 1993 the then-ADI beat four other shortlisted contenders
to a $30 million contract which was terminated in 1995. The project was then
rescoped to include enhanced functionality and Link 16 capability and retendered in 1996.
Two years later Boeing Australia was named preferred
tenderer, but it was not until 2004 that a $114 million fixed price contract
was signed; a gap which then-Defence Minister Robert Hill described as “far too long”.
It rapidly became clear that both parties had underestimated
the resources and effort required to complete such a complex undertaking and in
2008 the schedule was rebaselined and a range of commercial issues associated
with delays and costs was resolved by a Deed of Settlement signed by Boeing and
the Commonwealth. Included in the announcement, without further explanation,
was the first official reference to Vigilare as a $270 million project.
Davis points to 2008 – in the course of which Vigilare was
designated a Project of Concern – as the time in which the challenges to date
were settled and a very strong emphasis was placed on coordination and
collaboration between Boeing, Air Force and DMO to progress final integration,
verification and handover.
Unsurprisingly, this focused the two Regional Operations
Centres (ROCs) at the core of the Vigilare system, NORTHROC at RAAF Tindal in
the Northern Territory and EASTROC, the major tactical level data hub, at RAAF
Williamtown near Newcastle.
“We had a lot of complex development to complete, that
interrelated with a number of systems that Defence was providing in parallel,
and in addition we were essentially installing and delivering Warden’s replacement
while Warden was still operational.
“That took a very delicate balance to ensure DMO and Boeing
received site access for the new equipment without impacting operations but also that, at the same time, Air
Force got the outcome they wanted in terms of the new system.”
NORTHROC was accepted for operational service on
(rebaselined) schedule in September 2010 after playing a central role in
Exercise Pitch Black, one of the RAAF’s largest air defence exercises, two
months earlier.
According to Davis, EASTROC represented a greater challenge
due to more intense concurrent operations but was declared operational in April
2011, three months ahead of schedule. Vigilare was removed from the Projects of
Concern list two months later.
The gap between then and the declaration of FOC this
February was accounted for by training and the delivery to the system of
separate DMO and Air Force elements.
For Davis, the major challenge was integration of the
tactical data links.
“Not only does Vigilare use Link 16 but it’s designed to be
a node in the network and it’s connecting and controlling a number of Link 16
assets.
“Something like a Super Hornet or a ‘classic’ Hornet is Link
16-capable but they implement a much smaller subset of the message set that can
be exchanged between network participants whereas Vigilare is connected into
both types and Wedgetails and has been designed to be ready for future
platforms like the P-8A multimission maritime aircraft.
“Vigilare can control multiple datalink networks and at the
same time that it might be connected to a series of Link 16 platforms it could
also be connected to naval assets via Link 11, so the system is maintaining and
passing data between multiple links; that’s where some of the complexity came from.
Feeding data to Vigilare from widely-dispersed
communications assets and sensor types and sources involves numerous datapaths
and satellite and fixed terrestrial IP and telephony interfaces, all supplied
and integrated through the Defence wide area communications network. Vigilare
can also interface with Defence’s modernised high frequency radio network to
extend its range.
Although the networks are understood to have been designed
with a certain amount of resilience against electronic attacks, the survival of
the system as a viable entity in conflict will depend on the resilience of the
external sensors rather than their means of communication.
While Vigilare operates from the two fixed ROCs, the system
can readily interface with Darwin-based No. 114 Mobile Control and Reporting
Unit, currently the RAAF’s only unit with a deployable aerospace battle
management capability.
The ability when deployed for the MCRU to access data from
long-range assets such as space imagery and JORN correlated with the
feeds from its own AN/TPS-77 radars will lift the unit’s capability to a new
level, although how far the practical implementation of this capability has
reached is not known.
