Lockheed Martin, DARPA test aid systems integration

Lockheed Martin and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) personnel recently executed a series of flight tests designed to demonstrate seamless weapons systems integration.

The effort, which involved using Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works development program and executed at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, showed how a system of systems (SoS) approach enables rapid integration across air, space, land, sea and cyber in contested environments.

The flight tests demonstrated interoperability between a ground station, flying test bed, a C-12 and flight test aircraft, officials said, proving the ability to transmit data between those systems using STITCHES, a novel integration technology.

“The successful demonstrations focused on advancing integration technologies to increase capabilities of systems in operation today, enabling our warfighters to use those systems in unexpected ways,” Justin Taylor, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Mission Systems Roadmaps director, said. “The SoS approach is essential for allowing U.S. forces to rapidly reconfigure systems and prevail over any threat.”

Lockheed Martin and DARPA officials said the testing team successfully proved four key capabilities. These include the ability to automatically compose and transmit messages between systems; the first use of Non-Enterprise Data Links to create new information exchanges in-flight through Link-16; the ability to link ground based cockpit simulators with live aircraft systems in real time; and integration between APG-81 radar and DARPA’s Automatic Target Recognition software.