Sweden Strives for Collaborative Operations

Signal, Sep 2007 by Kenyon, Henry S

The latest version of the nation's airborne mission control application is being modified to use multinational datalinks.

The Swedish Air Force is upgrading its command and control systems to become interoperable with NATO equipment. The nation's primary aircraft and sensor management system recently underwent a major upgrade designed to enhance its capabilities and to prepare it for future operations with alliance and coalition forces.

StriC is a Swedish Air Force system used for controlling fighter jets such as the JAS 39 Gripen and for managing surveillance assets. It can accept multiple sensor feeds from aircraft, groundbased radar and a variety of passive sensors, and it can display them in a single air picture for an operator. The system is highly scalable and supports operations ranging from a small single-user node to a multi-terminal command center.

According to Björn Nordwinger, StriC program manager, Saab Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence Systems, .farfalla, Sweden, the system currently uses proprietary Swedish military datalinks. He notes that the government wants to move to an internationally accepted system such as Link 16, but it has not yet officially decided to acquire the datalinks.

The latest iteration of the system's software, known as StriC 522, includes improvements such as an English man-machine interface (MMI) and a NATO symbol set. Nordwinger adds that Saab has conducted tests with NATO standard datalinks and recently demonstrated a version of StriC with Link 16 capabilities. "It's no problem for the system to handle Link 16," he says.

Other upgrades feature a new operator console that works on Linux or Windows operating systems. The Swedish military currently uses Linux on its consoles. The latest version of StriC also includes a new server platform based on the IBM power PC 620 system, which allows the system's server support to operate in a fully redundant mode.

The StriC server platform runs the Unix-based AX language. Nordwinger notes that the Unix system operating on the IBM servers is more effective for hardware management than switching to Linux. "The AX is better for handling redundancy because it's developed together with the IBM hardware," he states.

Saab also has introduced a shortterm conflict alert function designed to notify operators when two aircraft fly too close to each other or are on a collision course. The application also includes a conflict resolution tool designed to separate civilian and military air traffic during operations.

StriC entered operational service with the Swedish military in 1998. However, it has evolved over the years, and Nordwinger says that the latest upgrade features hardware and software functions that effectively make it a new system. Besides being in English and containing a NATO reference set, the MMI functions in the StriC 522 system "drop"- that is, installation - includes interface style guides with drop-down menus and options for selecting a variety of new data input devices. He shares that the upgraded version has many of the same operator functions appearing in earlier releases but adds that these applications operate differently with the new interface.

Another recently introduced feature is a multisensor tracker. According to Nordwinger, older versions of StriC used a multiradar tracker that collected and managed data from several radar sources. The multisensor tracker can collect, fuse and manage information from as many as 64 active radar systems and passive sensors to create a single air picture.

StriC is designed to be scalable. The most basic StriC configuration consists of one operator, one server and one console. The largest version of the system can support roughly 40 or more consoles, but he explains that Saab has not determined the maximum number of consoles the system can support. The largest Swedish air force command centers operate only about 30 consoles. "You can scale the system for only one operator, one work space and server, to many servers if you want to have a fully redundant system," says Nordwinger.

Depending on the type of sensor feeds, a number of radar and communications systems can plug into StriC. The Swedish equipment features two interfaces: an older modem-based application providing radar data and a new system with a SemNet connection to radar data distribution networks. The SemNet links are based on the Estrix data format, which can operate with StriC. Nordwinger notes that the old Swedish radar data distribution system was based on modems operating the Swedish military's proprietary 200 Protocol. The new upgrade allows the network to operate the Estrix protocol, which can interface with radar stations and compatible sensors.

The Swedish air force's old command and control system had datalinks compatible with Gripens, but Nordwinger says that StriC uses a format more compatible with the aircraft's systems. More importantly, StriC's open software architecture can be easily upgraded and modified. He explains that the Swedish national data protocol is in some ways better than Link 16 but adds that this national data format is not interoperable with systems such as StriC.