The ADF’s ability to defeat enemy air threats has been boosted with the successful testing of the new Cooperative Engagement Capability.
Over the past few weeks off the coast of South Australia, Air Warfare Destroyer HMAS Hobart and NUSHIP Brisbane successfully tested the Cooperative Engagement Capability, which combines radar and fire control data into a common picture, allowing one ship to engage an adversary based on the other ship’s data. It is the first time that the technology has been used by a nation outside the United States.
Cooperative Engagement Capability is one technology that will form a part of the Australian Joint Integrated Fires Capability being implemented in the ADF.
Minister for Defence Marise Payne congratulated the RAN and the Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance on reaching this important milestone.
“The new Cooperative Engagement Capability is a significant step-change for Australia as we face increasing threats from cruise missiles and advanced aircraft,” Minister Payne said.
“Together Hobart and Brisbane bring revolutionary air defence capabilities – not by adding new radars or weapon systems, but by utilising existing sensors and weapons in a more effective manner. In the coming years, the Australian Joint Integrated Fires capability will link our ships, aircraft and land-based assets to create an increasingly sophisticated air defence network that can see over the horizon.”
“Not only does this capability enable us, for the first time, to share targeting data in real time between ADF assets, it will also enable us to share it with United States assets, providing new levels of interoperability within a coalition force."
“This new capability will provide Australian and United States warships the ability to share targeting data in real time. This means a combat system can engage a target that it otherwise could not see, by using data from another warship’s sensors,” Minister Payne said.
Defence is planning to integrate the CEC into other ADF capabilities, including the E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and the Integrated Air and Missile Defence program.
The CEC will also be integrated into the Future Frigate’s Aegis combat management system, together with the Saab Australia developed interface and the CEAFAR phased array radar, as part of a strategic enterprise approach to combat management systems.
“When NUSHIP Brisbane joins her sister ship, HMAS Hobart, in the fleet later this year, it will mark the beginning of a new era for air defence in Australia and our partners,” Minister Payne said.
The new technology will provide the ADF with longer range, cooperative, and layered air defence.