L3 Wescam

WESCAM MX™ LAND SIGHTS

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A NEW GENERATION OF LAND SIGHTS FOR ADVANCED INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS

L3Harris delivers powerful land technologies in support of global land requirements - including the U.S. Army’s IM-SHORAD and the Swiss Armed Forces’ TASYS Tactical reconnaissance programs. As the WESCAM MX portfolio of land systems continues to grow, L3Harris’ sights are set on integrating progressive on-the-move imaging capabilities for tomorrow’s integrated land solutions. Learn how L3Harris’ WESCAM MX sighting systems are furthering the capabilities of leading land programs. L3Harris.com/landsights

KC-46A Pegasus 17-46025 conducts air refuelling with a US Air Force F-16C over the Canadian Arctic during North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Arctic air defence exercise, Amalgam Dart 21-2, on 24 March, 2021.

unit to the 344th co-located at McConnell; and New Hampshire Air National Guard’s 133rd ARS based at Pease International Tradeport.

Despite the KC-46A force build-up, there is a dichotomy of perspective on the KC-46A between programmatic people and others who observe from outside of the programme and the aircrew who operate the aircraft every day. Reflecting on the time when McConnell had not received its first KC-46A, Lt Col Moores recalled local speculation about whether the aeroplane would ever be delivered. “Morale takes a dip, and people start to question their future career. Today, the only thing holding and this aeroplane back are the deficiencies that are being worked out at a higher level. If tomorrow was the worst day for the KC-46A programme, its operators would be ready to operate the aeroplane with very little risk. Our operators are that good right now.”

oPeratIonaL test

Based at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) is running the KC-46A IOT&E which officially began on 4 June, 2019. The 344th ARS and its reserve associate 924th ARS are the primary units flying all of the test events within AFOTEC’s KC-46A IOT&E test plan.

Explaining the status of the IOT&E, Lt Col Moores said: “We’ve completed the majority of the test plan. Now, everything that’s outstanding on the test plan is in a holding pattern until Boeing presents the RVS 2.0 solution to the Air Force. Then we can finish the IOT&E which is likely to be followed by concurrent IOC and FOC [initial and full operating capability] declarations. RVS 2.0 is holding up the IOC and FOC definitions.”

During the first year that KC-46A aircraft were assigned to the 22nd ARW, AFOTEC had pilots and boom operators embedded in the McConnell-based squadrons. Once the tail end of the test effort was reached, the AFOTEC personnel returned to Kirtland to reduce costs. All test data captured during the IOT&E missions is sent to AFOTEC for analysis, an essential but hidden aspect of the operational test programme. One equally important aspect is much less hidden: aircraft type clearance for air refuelling with the KC-46A. To date the F/A-18 Hornet, F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler are cleared to use the centreline drogue system, and the B-52, C-5, KC-10, C-17, KC-46A, AC-130U, HC-130, MC130, RC-135, TC-135, E-3G, F-15, F-16, F-22, and F-35 are cleared to use the boom system. The latest type to be certified was the Boeing B-1B bomber following an IOT&E mission flown with a B-1 assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron based at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota on 17 May, 2021.

As IOT&E slows down caused by a lack of remaining test points, Lt Col Moores is certain the appetite for using the KC-46A from around the US Air Force will continue to grow. One source causing a bigger appetite is exposure of the aircraft given to combatant commanders. “It’s definitely going to start moving very quickly in the next couple of years,” he said.

CUrrent tasKInG

In addition to its regular tasking roles of air refuelling, aeromedical evacuation, air transport of passengers and cargo, the KC-46A-equipped squadrons at McConnell are participating in an increasing number of exercises in the United States to further evaluate the aircraft.

The US Air Force Weapons School based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada runs two courses in each fiscal year. Each six-month course culminates with a two-week phase known as Weapons School Integration, dubbed WSINT. This comprises a series of complex, large-force employment missions that serve as the capstone portion of the student’s course. Each combat-coded major design series aircraft, helicopter and

An Air Mobility Command aeromedical evacuation technician locates inflight medical equipment prior to a mission flown for the KC-46A’s initial operational test and evaluation on 10 July, 2020.

unmanned air vehicle serving in the US Air Force inventory has a dedicated weapons squadron to train its undergraduates. Based at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, the 509th Weapons Squadron serves the KC-135 community and is likely to also serve the KC-46A in the future. A weapons school programme has not been finalised.

Missions flown from Nellis have a high operational tempo and are both complex and robust in nature, even for tanker crews. In December 2020, a KC-46A assigned to the 344th ARS deployed one of its new tankers to Nellis to participate in WSINT 20-2. The flight crews were not part of the course but used the complex air operations to evaluate the aircraft and its systems in the robust scenarios staged for each mission.

In early May, America’s most robust joint exercise, the biennial Northern Edge once again took place in Alaska filling the vast skies with jet noise. Interoperability between all of America’s armed services is a primary objective of the exercise. This year a KC-46A flown by crews assigned to Air Force Reserve Command’s 931st Air Refueling Wing deployed to Elmendorf Air Force Base to participate in the exercise. The new tanker provided air refuelling for numerous US Air Force and US Navy jets using the boom and centreline drogue system respectively. During Northern Edge mission, aircrews set records and determined how quickly the aircraft can refuel and re-enter the battle. Many KC-46A systems were evaluated in the operational scenarios staged, including some IOT&E test points. On 9 July, Air Mobility Command officially cleared the KC-46A to limited operations and cleared the aircraft to use its centreline drogue system as per those conducted in Northern Edge.

An example of now standard tasking for the new tanker, during the final week of May, the 344th ARS provided one KC-46A to air refuel American fighter aircraft on a transatlantic flight to Europe, while a second aircraft conducted a trans-Pacific airlift mission concurrently air refuelling C-17s from McChord Air Force Base. Elsewhere, some crews deployed to Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport, Michigan, to participate in Mobility Guardian 2021, Air Mobility Command's large-scale mobility exercise. During exercise missions, aircrews used the Tactical Situational Awareness System (TSAS) flight deck display to show Blue (friendly) and Red (enemy) aircraft and threats located around the battlespace. Information was fed into the TSAS via line-of-sight and beyond-lineof-sight datalinks in operation on C-5, C-17 and C-130 aircraft.

The US Air Force continues to train its combat-coded squadrons to the doctrine of Agile Combat Employment, dubbed ACE, and its KC-46A units are no exception. ACE alongside the Department of Defense Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept, is designed to connect sensors from all military services and is a big part of the 344th and 924th’s training and operations. Explaining, Lt Col Moores said; “Everything the squadrons do when thinking about operating the KC-46A comes with the understanding that it is going to be integrated in the JADC2 environment, and into an agile combat employment framework. There is a lot of learning to be done on what that looks like, especially in different parts of the world, but the two completely represent what we will be doing in the future. Some of our current training without being officially tasked to deploy to and remain at a specific location for months on end, is allowing us to do that. Airmen who have only flown from a handful of airfields are now going on a week-long trip and they’re not going to a single place they’ve ever been before. They understand that’s the way it will be in the future.”

The RC-135W Rivet Joint is a large, all-weather electronic surveillance aircraft based on the C-135 airframe.

LOOKING DOWN FROM ON HIGH

The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force is bringing in new platforms to continue its airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability, a skill developed from rudimentary beginnings at the end of the First World War

One could easily write two quite different articles about British airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. One article would paint a very negative picture - describing sweeping cutbacks and the wholesale loss of capabilities – while the other would be more positive, highlighting some high-profile acquisitions and some promising new future technologies. The truth lies somewhere between the two.

Reconnaissance was one of the earliest roles for the military aeroplane, and the Royal Air Force (RAF) has been in the recce game since its formation in 1918, initially undertaking simple visual observation of enemy targets, and subsequently providing a primarily photographic reconnaissance product. The Second World War saw an expansion into various types of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) but the emphasis remained on photography – with tactical or fighter reconnaissance usually carried out at low level by armed aircraft, and with high altitude unarmed aircraft conducting more strategic operations.

During the Cold War, the Supermarine Spitfires used for tactical reconnaissance gave way to Gloster Meteor FR.Mk9s, Supermarine Swift FR.Mk5s, Hawker Hunter FR.Mk10s, augmented by tactically-configured English Electric Canberras, and later being replaced by recce-pod carrying McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantoms, SEPCAT Jaguars and latterly Panavia Tornados. The high altitude Spitfire PR.Mk19 and de Havilland Mosquito PR.Mk34 gave way to Canberras, Handley Page Valiants and Victors.

New Long Range Oblique Photography (LOROP) cameras allowed reconnaissance aircraft to ‘look’ far off track, allowing them to gather imagery of a target without directly over-flying it. This allowed aircraft to ‘look’ far over an enemy border, for example. The post war period also saw radar being used for reconnaissance, and especially for reconnoitring potential routes for the V-bombers, which would then use their own radar to find their way to the target.

But the reconnaissance role was not simply about the aircraft platforms, nor even about the long focal length lenses fitted to the cameras they carried, nor the new sensors deployed.

A whole infrastructure of processing and photographic interpretation was established and refined, such that after landing, film would be rushed to a waiting Air Transportable Reconnaissance Exploitation Laboratory (ATREL) complex of mobile cabins housing aircrew debriefing facilities, and equipment capable of very rapid wet processing of high-resolution film, with motorised light tables and imagery enhancement equipment to facilitate rapid imagery analysis. Such analysis could even be performed in a hostile NBC environment, producing ‘hot reports’ within 30 minutes of the pilot shutting down his engine(s).

By the end of the Cold War, traditional wet film cameras were increasingly being replaced by electro-optical and infra-red sensors, but great emphasis was still placed on gathering very high quality, high resolution imagery, and reconnaissance remained a largely specialised role.

Traditional photographic reconnaissance reached its zenith in the late 1990s