During September, the RAAF began using the Vigilare Northern Regional Operations Centre (NROC) at RAAF Base Tindal, for surveillance and battlespace management operations across Australia.
With the acceptance into operational service for NROC, the RAAF and Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) have concluded that the enhanced capability provided by Vigilare provides a robust Air Defence Command and Control (C2) system for Australia.
Vigilare combines information from a wide range of platforms, sensors, tactical data links and intelligence networks, the live inputs from these sources presenting a unified operational picture to the operator at single or multiple control centres.
Tim Malone, project director for Project Air 5333, said NROC was now correlating a myriad of data feeds from sensors and information across Defence, civil and foreign sources providing directed air surveillance and air battle management capabilities for the RAAF.
“In my opinion, this capability, especially the sophisticated Tactical Data Link implementation, is arguably world-class,” Malone said.
“We’re extremely pleased with the way Vigilare has transitioned into operational service at NROC,” Boeing’s Steve Parker said.
“It’s indicative of the considerable engineering and project management rigour we’ve applied and the pragmatic relationship between Boeing, our supplier partners and our DMO and RAAF customers.”
According to Parker, Vigilare has set the benchmark for future complex systems integration within the ADF by bringing several disparate systems together to create a true systems-of-systems environment.
Prior to service entry, Vigilare participated in the RAAF’s Pitch Black 2010 air combat exercise which also involved the air forces of Singapore, Thailand and New Zealand.
During the exercise, held July 16 to August 6, NROC was used as the central C2 node, providing continuous surveillance and battlespace management for offensive counter-air and offensive air-support operations.
The system interacted with multiple assets, including RAAF F/A-18 Hornets, F-111s, Hawks, forward air control PC-9s, and AP-3C Orions; Republic of Singapore Air Force and Royal Thai Air Force F-16s; an RSAF E2-C Hawkeye Airborne Warning and Control aircraft, and other air mobility and air-to-air refuelling assets.
Vigilare is on track for final system acceptance in mid-2011.
The next major milestone leading up to this is completion of the Eastern Regional Operations Centre at RAAF Base Williamtown.