Leonardo DRS revealed yesterday that it will supply state-of-the-art aerial combat training systems to Draken Europe to assist Draken’s initiative in boosting operational readiness training for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
The Leonardo DRS Airborne & Intelligence Systems division collaborates with Collins Aerospace to provide the next-generation aerial combat training solutions for deployment by Draken in support of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (MoD). This system is a Joint Secure Air Combat Training System (JSAS) designed for integration with Draken’s Falcon 20 fleet.
“We take pride in serving as a reliable provider of aerial combat training systems for our close coalition allies, enabling Draken to enhance the operational training available to the frontline of the United Kingdom’s defense forces,” stated Larry Ezell, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Leonardo DRS Airborne & Intelligence Systems division. “This is a remarkable opportunity to showcase the ongoing support and innovative technology that we and our collaborators are offering to coalition partners,” he added.
JSAS empowers the warfighter to exercise and refine joint tactics, techniques, and procedures within a secure setting against a comparable adversary threat. The solution consists of aircraft-mounted JSAS pods alongside a ground station, providing advanced, high-capacity, low-latency, and multi-hop mesh networking capabilities. A software-defined radio facilitates multiple waveforms that act as essential enablers for secure, multi-domain, live, virtual, and constructive training.
This type of system is already operational within the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy for training and analytics, and is anticipated to be authorized for deployment on the Falcon 20 fleet in early summer 2021. As part of Draken’s existing operational readiness training agreement with the MoD, JSAS will make near real-time combat training insights accessible for ground review and be ready for debriefing immediately following landing. This interoperability is enabled by the Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) architecture, which guarantees that classified information is safeguarded while being shared across platforms with matching security levels.
JSAS, a variant of the Leonardo DRS next-gen Tactical Combat Training System – Increment II (TCTS II), also developed by Collins Aerospace and Leonardo DRS, will facilitate complete encrypted interoperability with all coalition platforms, ranging from the legacy P5 to the anticipated P6 air combat maneuvering instrumentation (ACMI) waveforms.
These training systems are intended to meet the evolving demands of our clientele as global threats transform. The JSAS pod capability forms part of the Leonardo DRS advanced sensor technology suite, which boasts an extensive installed base across the U.S. military and global partners.
Through this contract, Leonardo DRS will produce selected components of the JSAS pods and will conduct the final assembly and acceptance testing, including aircraft integration and weapons simulations.
Tasks will be executed at the Airborne & Intelligence Systems facility located in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
