The Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) is a secure, jam-resistant, computer-controlled communications network that distributes near real-time tactical information, generally integrated into radio sets, and coordinated by a Network Control Station. [1] It is primarily used for data distribution, position location, and reporting. It enhances command and control of tactical units by providing commanders with the location of friendly units. [2] It was first fielded by the US Army in 1987. [3]
EPLRS is a Time Division Multiple Access System that uses a frequency hopping, spread spectrum waveform in the UHF band. [4] It incorporates the Thornton family of COMSEC devices, and has the capability for Over the Air Rekeying (OTAR). EPLRS uses the Army Data Distribution System version of the X.25 CCITT and IEEE 802.3 protocols to interface with Army Tactical Command and Control System (ATCCS).
Situation Awareness Data Link (SADL), [5] installed on USAF F-16 and A-10 fighters, coordinates with EPLRS for ground support missions. [6]
Each network is controlled by a Network Control Station (NCS), AN/TSQ-158. These have gone through several iterations.
Downsized version to fit in HMMWV, first fielded in 1991. Dimensions: 8.5'x7'x6', 4000 lbs
The AN/TSQ-158(V)4 is produced by Raytheon. Housed in a HMMWV replacing the AN/UYK-44 computer with a Toughbook laptop computer. Data is displayed through the FBCB2 platform.
The Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) is an L band Distributed Time Division Multiple Access (DTDMA) network radio system used by the United States Department of Defense and their allies to support data communications needs, principally in the air and missile defense community. It produces a spread spectrum signal using Frequency-shift keying (FSK) and Phase-shift keying (PSK) to spread the radiated power over a wider spectrum (range of frequencies) than normal radio transmissions. This reduces susceptibility to noise, jamming, and interception. In JTIDS Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) (similar to cell phone technology), each time interval (e.g., 1 second) is divided into time slots (e.g. 128 per second). Together, all 1536 time slots in a 12-second interval are called a "frame". Each time slot is "bursted" (transmitted) at several different carrier frequencies sequentially. Within each slot, the phase angle of the transmission burst is varied to provide PSK. Each type of data to be transmitted is assigned a slot or block of slots (channel) to manage information exchanges among user participation groups. In traditional TDMA, the slot frequencies remain fixed from second to second (frame to frame). In JTIDS TDMA, the slot frequencies and/or slot assignments for each channel do not remain fixed from frame to frame but are varied in a pseudo-random manner. The slot assignments, frequencies, and information are all encrypted to provide computer-to-computer connectivity in support of every type of military platform to include Air Force fighters and Navy submarines.
Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) is a very high frequency combat network radio (CNR) used by U.S. and allied military forces. In the CNR network, the SINCGARS’ primary role is voice transmission between surface and airborne command and control (C2) assets.
The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) aimed to replace existing radios in the American military with a single set of software-defined radios that could have new frequencies and modes (“waveforms”) added via upload, instead of requiring multiple radio types in ground vehicles, and using circuit board swaps in order to upgrade. JTRS has seen cost overruns and full program restructurings, along with cancellation of some parts of the program.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is an X-band electronically steered pulse-Doppler 3D radar system used to alert and cue Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces. It is currently produced by Raytheon Missiles & Defense.
NASAMS is a distributed and networked short- to medium-range ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and Raytheon. The system defends against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and fixed wing aircraft, firing any of a wide range of existing missiles.
Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was a computerized information processing system developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s and first deployed in the early 1960s for use in combat ships. It took reports from multiple sensors on different ships and collated it to produce a single unified map of the battlespace. This information could then be relayed back to the ships and to the weapons operators.
Bowman is the name of the tactical communications system used by the British Armed Forces.
Hughes AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder Weapon Locating System is a mobile radar system developed in the late 1970s by Hughes Aircraft Company, achieving Initial Operational Capability in 1980 and full deployment in 1984. Currently manufactured by ThalesRaytheonSystems, the system is a long-range version of "weapon-locating radar", designed to detect and track incoming artillery and rocket fire to determine the point of origin for counter-battery fire. It is currently in service at brigade and higher levels in the United States Army and by other countries. The radar is trailer-mounted and towed by a 2+1⁄3-short-ton (2,100 kg) truck. A typical AN/TPQ-37 system consists of the Antenna-Transceiver Group, Command Shelter and 60 kW Generator.
The M1131 fire support vehicle (FSV) of the Stryker series provides automated enhanced surveillance, target acquisition, target identification, target tracking, target designation, position location and communications functionality. Targets will be transmitted instantly to the fire support system and shooter. Models with the double V-hull upgrade are known as the M1251 FSVV.
Blue force tracking is a United States military term for a GPS-enabled capability that provides military commanders and forces with location information about friendly military forces. In NATO military symbology, blue typically denotes friendly forces. The capability provides a common picture of the location of friendly forces and therefore is referred to as the blue force tracker. When all capitalized, the term refers to a specific defense contractors' system, but the capability is found in many military and civilian mobile apps.
Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) is a communication platform designed for commanders to track friendly and hostile forces on the battlefield. It increases a vehicle commander's situational awareness of the battlefield by gathering information near real-time based on vehicle locations being updated on the battlefield. This information is viewed graphically, and exchanged via both free and fixed text message formats.
The AN/UYK-43 was the standard 32-bit computer of the United States Navy for surface ship and submarine platforms, with the first unit delivered in October, 1984. Some 1,250 units were delivered through to 2000. The size of a refrigerator, it replaced the older AN/UYK-7, both built by UNISYS and shared the same instruction set. An enhancement to the UYK-43, the Open Systems Module (OSM), allows up to six VMEbus Type 6U commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cards to be installed in a UYK-43 enclosure.
The Project Manager Force Battle Command Brigade and Below is a component of the Program Executive Office Command Control and Communications Tactical Special Projects Office in the United States Army. The phrase "brigade and below" in the name refers to the fact that operations and communications within these smaller Army units are shifting to a digital integration.
PM WIN-T is a component of Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical in the United States Army. PM WIN-T has been absorbed into PM Tactical Networks as Product Manager for Mission Networks.
The BCT network is a layered system of interconnected computers and software, radios, and sensors within the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) designed to increase survivability and strategy on a battlefield where units can communicate internally instead of through a central command. The BCT Network allows for a more efficient use of communication and a possibility to plug combined-arms warfare into the network for better communication.
The Hayabusa class is a guided missile patrol boat class of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. Six boats were built between 2002 and 2004.
Nett Warrior (NW) (formerly known as the Ground Soldier System) is an integrated dismounted leader situational awareness (SA) system for use during combat operations of the United States Army.
A battlefield management system (BMS) is a system meant to integrate information acquisition and processing to enhance command and control of a military unit through multiple other C4ISR(Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) solutions to give commanding officers, NCOs or individual vehicles better situational awareness to friendly units around them and prevent "blue on blue" incidents, provide better situational awareness to OPFOR units seen by friendly units, speed relaying of orders and thus accelerate combat operations and maneuvers, facilitating fire support orders as an enemy can be marked by a squad leader on his terminals map and then have the location relayed directly to artillery, CAS or other firesupport
The Raytheon AN/MSQ-18 Battalion Missile Operations System was a Project Nike command, control, and coordination system for "each associated missile battery" to control a Nike missile as directed from a Raytheon AN/MSQ-28 at the Army Air Defense Command Post. Raytheon Company constructed the AN/MSQ-18 as 2 separate subsystems:
Combat Skyspot was the ground-directed bombing (GDB) operation of the Vietnam War by the United States Air Force using Bomb Directing Centrals and by the United States Marine Corps using Course Directing Centrals. Combat Skyspot's command guidance of B-52s and tactical fighters and bombers—"chiefly flown by F-100's"—at night and poor weather was used for aerial bombing of strategic, close air support, interdiction, and other targets. Using a combination radar/computer/communications system at operating location in Southeast Asia, a typical bombing mission had an air command post turn over control of the mission to the radar station, and the station provided bomb run corrections and designated when to release bombs.