ION Technical Content
Allied Air Identification
| Abstract: | As mandated by Congress, all U. S. Military aircraft will be equipped with GPS navigation equipment by the year 2000. With GPS equipment installed, the most accurate position/locating information for each military aircraft will be the self generated position displayed on that aircraft. Compared to the current capability of military radars, GPS locating information is over 20 times more accurate. An increase in friendly aircraft position accuracy will clarify the tactical picture. This can be achieved if all friendly aircraft have the capability to self report their location vice being located by radar. Likewise, a significant improvement in friendly aircraft identification fidelity can be achieved if all friendly aircraft also have the capability to self report their identity vice being identified visually or interrogated by Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) interrogators. The Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) will allow each aircraft to self report but is expensive and will not be installed in all aircraft. An affordable communication link capable of giving all military aircraft the capability to self report is an encrypted application of the civil Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). Without losing any current IFF capability, an encrypted self report of aircraft identity, geodetic position (Lat-Long-Alt), and velocity vector could be transmitted every second using the ADS- B format on the 1090 MHz extended squitter. Platforms within line of sight can use this encrypted transmission to automatically display a very accurate plot of reporting aircraft in their vicinity. Using a tiered approach to achieve situational awareness, any JTIDS platform within range could retransmit the information from these self reports throughout the JTIDS net. Other military applications of this broadcast could be a Formation Positioning System (FPS), formationhanker rendezvous, general situational awareness for restricted areas, and mission playback for tactics training and safety investigations. An additional benefit of this military application will be the installation of the ADS-B hardware soon to be required for civil aviation surveillance. |
| Published in: |
Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 1996 Loews Santa Monica Hotel Santa Monica, CA |
| Pages: | 305 - 310 |
| Cite this article: | Van Sickle, Garth, "Allied Air Identification," Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Santa Monica, CA, January 1996, pp. 305-310. |
| Full Paper: |
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