It’s all enabled through a concept known as digital engineering, a holistic approach to designing, developing and testing defense systems in virtual environments before any part hits the production line.

And engineers at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies business, are no strangers to digital engineering. In fact, it is now the standard for innovating and delivering systems faster and smarter to our armed forces.

Updating the acquisition process

Back in the “old days,” engineers used a waterfall process, where phases of the project progressed in a sequential manner toward the end like a waterfall.

Conventionally, the traditional acquisition engineering process is often stove piped. Each step in the cycle – design, testing, production, operations – is inundated with paper and documents that often lead to protracted cycle times.

Digital engineering flips that on its head. Now, all hands in the program can refer to an integrated repository of all the data, eliminating the convoluted paper trail. The data is linked together using digital threads, which connect all aspects of a system’s lifecycle from end to end.

That means various teams working on a program from finance to engineering can work from the same dataset concurrently, saving time and reducing duplication.

And that’s how a team of engineers started working on the Presidential National Voice Conferencing System, a secure conferencing capability for the president and the top combatant commanders during national crises.

Four years ago, a customer requested a system of systems-level gap assessment, which identifies issues between system components that don’t meet requirements.

Without digital engineering, it would have taken years to accomplish. With digital engineering, RI&S engineers built a model of the technical baseline and identified more than 100 gaps in six months.

“For PNVC, we’re seeing value because we built a digital engineering ecosystem that’s demonstrating higher efficiency and reduced cycle times in a lot of our work processes,” said Joe Campagna, RI&S systems engineering associate director, Communications and Airspace Management.

Fast-tracking innovation while shrinking cycle times

Digital engineering offers visibility into the entire picture of a system that enables engineers to trace back and see how all the parts in a system link throughout the entire lifecycle. It’s essentially a vast digital blueprint of how a system ties together in the grand scheme of things.

“Take a 3D model for instance, digital engineering allows the engineer to zoom in one part of the design,” said Michelle Moholt, RI&S COSMC architect for Trusted Mission Processing. “If you click on it, it’ll show all of its digital threads that can link all the way back to where that part’s requirements came from and why it is even in the system.”

Using that approach, Moholt’s team built the Common Open Secure Mission Computer, a platform-agnostic mission computer that can be used on any aircraft, fixed, rotary, unmanned or wide-body wing.

And since it’s all digital, engineers can leverage the architecture and digital thread, such as the linkages, decomposition and all the requirements. This drives down cost and time because engineers don’t have to reinvent the same architectures, requirements or source code from scratch over and over again – processes that could take months.

For a particular part of the platform, it normally takes three months to develop. The COSMC team accomplished it in a mere two weeks by leveraging their product family existing architecture.

“That’s the promise of digital engineering,” said Campagna. “It can drastically reduce cycle times. Shorter development, test and production lifecycles; higher reuse; and faster innovation will help us become more competitive.”

In addition, digital engineering enables engineers to quickly assess impacts to design choices.

“For example, if an engineer makes a change, they can see upfront in the model how it could impact sustainment or production downstream,” said Moholt. “So it’s enabling us to have a better, well-rounded product that’s cost effective.”

Even last-minute design changes can impact cost and schedule far into the future.

Now, thanks to digital engineering, engineers can try thousands of iterations in the digital world at a system or component level, exposing problems faster and finding opportunities to optimize systems from the get-go.

Using realistic modeling and simulation, customers can even do a test drive of interfaces, while engineers in tandem refine and improve in the virtual world all before the customer makes acquisition decisions to build anything in the real world.

“Digital engineering allows engineers to focus on the engineering,” said Campagna. “The real benefit is that it’ll allow us to be more competitive as a company and innovate faster and smarter to meet our customer commitments.”

Learn more about RI&S’ JADC2 capabilities here.

The ground systems that U.S. Space Force satellites need to do their jobs are evolving to have more in common with cell phones that can run apps from made by anyone. An open source architecture for the command and control systems allows the military to roll out new software, capabilities and updates faster and cheaper, with the ultimate goal of ending stovepiped setups to process data for separate satellites. C4ISRNET checked on progress with a leading prototype project to test this agile approach for missile warning satellites, as the Space Force works toward a common C2 ground service for all of its space systems.

Watch Recording:

Guest Speakers:

• Colonel Wallace “Rhet” Turnbull III, Director of Cross-Mission Ground & Communications Enterprise, U.S. Space Force
• Jeffrey Schrader, Vice President, Raytheon Intelligence & Space

Earlier this year, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed off on the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy, which intends to accelerate the decision loop between sensor and shooter using a network architecture that operates across the services. Project Convergence, the Army’s campaign of learning, is the latest effort to bring JADC2 to fruition by integrating technologies that operate at multi-domain scale and speed.

Defense News spoke to Scott McGleish, executive director, Space and C2 Systems for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, about JADC2, considerations for how to implement it across the services, as well as the recent shift in leveraging open-source capabilities from industry.

DEFENSE NEWS: Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, who we know has played a critical oversight role in developing this strategy, described JADC2′s creation as a recognition that US forces must be able to operate at the “speed of relevance.” What do you think he’s alluding to there, and what are some of the factors responsible for making near real-time decision-making a top priority?

JADC2 is the DoD’s vision for a future command and control network that will connect the battlespace across every domain. It will give military commanders and operators the ability to make decisions faster than ever before.

Every domain — sea, air, land, space, cyber and even the electromagnetic spectrum will be contested in the modern threat landscape. Victory will depend on rapid access to data to make more informed and faster decisions.

Our security community’s urgent need to implement JADC2 is in direct response to the changing battlespace dynamics outlined in the U.S. National Defense Strategy. The strategy emphasizes the need for cutting-edge capabilities that will enable the U.S. military in collaboration with its allies and partners to operate at the “speed of relevance” — with an overarching goal to deter and defend against sophisticated peer threats.

Adversaries now have offensive reach capabilities that have to be countered with different approaches and technology solutions to give the joint force and partners the decision advantage. Speed, obviously, will determine the mission’s success in future wars and it will require rapid decision making to outpace those peer threats. It’s going to require inventive approaches with JADC2, [being able to] combat our adversaries’ military advances, survivability, and integrated multi-domain technologies.

Industry is developing the foundational technologies today that will bring JADC2 to life. Our strengths are in space, protected communications, cyber, advanced sensors, and software solutions. These areas align with the underpinning capabilities for JADC2 – from applying DevSecOps to engineering the sensor grid. Our alignment means we are contributing to JADC2 across our technology portfolio.

DEFENSE NEWS: With JADC2, there’s a focus on using open-source technology to leverage innovations from across industry. At the same time, companies spend a lot of time and money to develop intellectual property. How do you balance IP and open standards, as well as concerns about vendor lock-in, when partnering with the DoD on JADC2 efforts?

We’re designing many technologies with open standards that can contribute to JADC2 such as the TITAN solution [Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node] for the Army. An open-systems architecture will be key to unlocking and integrating data across systems — legacy systems and new systems. At the end of the day, this has got to tie together seamlessly. That’s a challenge because there’s a lot of legacy systems. So how does that come forward?

Going to an open architecture — the APIs [application programming interface], the GUIs [graphical user interface] — that’s going to be critical. We’re proactively adopting this type of standard. It ensures our customers can seamlessly replace or update common components to operate in critical missions and in certain domains. We want to give them the ability to utilize it themselves and make changes, and not restrict the environments they work in and deal with.

[With TITAN], that’s basically taking satellite or any type of sensor feed and bringing it through what we might call the “brain” of it to harness all those capabilities from an A/ML perspective, from a data ingest perspective, from a 3D point cloud, and giving that capability to put long-range precision fires at the combat team level. TITAN is being designed to be very flexible, extensible, modular and scalable. It gives us the ability to give the commander enough time to react and put automation in play, and still have the human in the loop. You don’t remove that human in the loop, but you speed up the decision-making process so the OODA loop is much quicker.

DEFENSE NEWS: What are some of the most exciting developments you’ve observed among the services that are bringing JADC2 to reality?

DoD is about to unveil its Joint All Domain Command and Control implementation plan. The plan will be linked to the U.S. military departments’ supporting JADC2 initiatives such as the U.S. Army’s collaborative initiative with the U.S. Air Force, Project Convergence.

The U.S. Army launched Project Convergence last year with the U.S. Air Force to test JADC2 capabilities. Project Convergence will lay the groundwork for how the Army’s modernizes its force to conduct multi-domain operations.

Beyond TITAN, RI&S is contributing other technologies to operationalize JADC2 for the Army with the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool, or EWPMT.

EWPMT has a very comprehensive, situational understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum and what that provides for electronic warfare officers: the ability to plan, coordinate, synchronize, manage, deconflict EW and spectrum management ahead of and during mission. It gives that command and control ability in assets hosted at the network level.

These solutions demonstrate the variety of technologies needed for the system of systems approach for JADC2. They will aid the joint force and the Army alike to accelerate decision making in the future fast-paced battlespace.

The Department of Defense’s Data Strategy lays the foundation for how we manage, secure and use data to sharpen the U.S. national security’s asymmetric advantage. Barbara Borgonovi, vice president of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, shares insight on how Joint All Domain Command and Control will transform the use of data to win the future all-domain fight.

Q1: How has the global security landscape evolved to create the need for Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2)?

Borgonovi: The National Defense Strategy shifts our focus from the counter terrorism operations of the past decade to preventing and preparing for a conflict with peer threats. In what the NDS calls the Great Power Competition, victory will hinge on our ability to develop transformative solutions that outpace adversaries’ advancements in military capabilities.

Additionally, the Pentagon’s recent release of its first data strategy underscores a second shift to instill a data-driven approach across its operations and next generation technology development. Given the deluge of data available, the data strategy serves as a guide for how we use data as a strategic asset to stay ahead of adversaries.

The case for effectively harnessing data has never been more relevant and imperative. In the global threat landscape, adversaries have invested substantially to extend their lethal effects range and combat capabilities. The complexity of future warfare in the highly contested environment will complicate employment of our forces and allies.

New survivable, integrated system of systems and multi-domain effects that support the vision for JADC2 will help us reach deeper and act faster to respond in the future environment. Finding faster, creative and more automated uses of existing data will be key. This will help strengthen our asymmetric advantage to deter and defeat our adversaries.

Q2: How is the aerospace and defense industry responding to the increased support from the services in architecting the capabilities for JADC2?

Borgonovi: The precepts of JADC2 recognize that winning future wars depends on our speed to collect, analyze and use data to inform decision-making. To simplify a complex issue, we need an architecture that will enable the flow of data faster than ever before. Mission success depends on it.

The services’ emphasis on cooperation is essential for our capabilities to work more effectively together. The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force’s two-year collaboration agreement to co-develop the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control in October signals their priority to define this architecture. The U.S. Navy is also exploring a similar cooperation with the Air Force.

The Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System on-ramp demonstrations and the Army’s Convergence Exercise serve as examples of partnership opportunities with the DoD to evaluate new capabilities, approaches, and to identify common standards.

Warfighting in the future will have at least one aspect that remains consistent with previous conflicts. Success will require partnership with allies and partners. From industry’s perspective, the collaboration across the services and with coalition partners will help turn JADC2 into a reality. We are working with the services and allies to develop a data-driven, secure and highly networked environment. This will enable fast decision-making in any domain. As the services and coalition partners establish relationships to work together, we stand ready to help rapidly transition the way we deliver warfighter capabilities through an integrated solution that the future demands.

Q3: How is Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) in collaboration with Raytheon Missiles and Defense (RMD) contributing to JADC2?

Borgonovi: RI&S and RMD are complementary because of our core technology areas. RMD contributes the smart multi-domain effects, while RI&S offers intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cybersecurity and battle management command and control to securely move data. We are bringing these strengths together to provide JADC2 solutions across every domain.

Since the inception of JADC2, we have been active partners with the U.S. services. We continue to participate in multiple consortia to establish the standard for open architecture. Open architecture will serve as one of the key elements to enable access to data. We are also working on the open mission systems consortium, which includes about 10 industry partners in addition to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. Our intended outcome from this effort is to develop a set of standard software messages so that advanced radars can connect to mission systems. It will ultimately allow for any processor to plug and play into the network from open systems architecture sensors to secure communications to battle management command and control.

We’re developing these future capabilities that are more connected and smarter to connect the dots between data. Our ability to rapidly synchronize data will give our customers the strategic advantage needed on the future battlefield.

Learn more about RI&S’ Decision Superiority capabilities.

Barbara Borgonovi is vice president of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business of Raytheon Technologies. She is responsible for the strategic direction and operation of the mission area, which develops, produces and sustains airborne electro-optical/infrared sensors, active electronically scanned array/scanning radars and various special mission aircraft solutions. She also directs Raytheon Vision Systems, a leader in focal plane array technology.

Iceman: Wood, we’ve got four bogeys.

Wolfman: Wrong, make that five!

More than 30 years after the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, a new upgrade to the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system helps pilots avoid dangerous situations like the one featured in the movie’s final scene.

“This is a huge upgrade,” said Frank Whiston, director of IFF for Integrated Communication Systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, one of the four businesses that form Raytheon Technologies. “Mode 5, the new system, can better identify friendly aircraft from long-range distances, especially when they are flying in close formation.”

The IFF system identifies friendly forces, increasing situational awareness and reducing risk of fratricide. Mode 5 improvements include new cryptography, stronger security features, modern signal modulation and greater data content, as well as lethal interrogations that provide a final challenge to a targeted platform prior to weapons engagement — even when the platform is flying radio silent.

In 2019, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Hanwha Systems signed a $170 million technical cooperation agreement to produce IFF Mode 5 systems across more than 40 types of air and maritime platforms for the Republic of Korea military.

When Whiston was describing these capabilities to a Republic of Korea colonel and his team, Whiston said the colonel remarked “Oh, like Top Gun.”

“I had to think about it for a second and go back. I remembered the scene and said to him, ‘absolutely…just like Top Gun,’” Whiston said.

There are three stages to identifying an aircraft as friend or foe: radar detection, antenna reception and IFF interrogation.

“An aircrew establishes themselves in a Combat Air Patrol waiting for an event that would trigger a response,” said Joe “Grip” Beissner, who flew the F-15E Strike Eagle in the U.S. Air Force and now works for Raytheon Intelligence & Space. “If the trigger is met, then the aircrew will engage the adversary using on-board sensors.”

“In a typical scenario, you are initially too far from the adversary to detect them on your own radar so you have to use off-board systems for situational awareness,” Beissner said. “As you close in on the threat, you transition to your own avionics, in this case your fire control radar, and you activate the IFF system.”

If a pilot is flying in an F-15, it would be equipped with an active electronically scanned array, or AESA, radar. The radar would detect an oncoming aircraft and signal to the IFF Electronically Steered Antenna. The antenna would pass the signal to the IFF Mode 5 system for interrogation.

“What you need in today’s environment is a ‘lack of friendly’ and a ‘positive hostile’ before you can engage,” said Beissner. “So, when you activate IFF, you essentially are trying to elicit a response to find out whether you’ve got a good guy or a bad guy in front of you.”

Pilots sometimes fly in a state of radio silence. They disable their transponders so the aircraft doesn’t reply to any interrogations, which could potentially reveal themselves to detection by hostile forces who might be listening.

Lethal interrogation, one of the biggest Mode 5 updates, enables the interrogating pilot to override another aircraft flying radio silent and elicit a response, enhancing fratricide prevention. It’s a pilot’s last steps in a shoot-no shoot decision.

Raytheon Intelligence & Space has installed and maintained IFF interrogators and transponders on more than 120 types of aircraft, ships and land vehicles around the world.

Learn more about RIS’s Communications & Navigation Solutions here.