Australia Embraces Net-Centric Warfighting

Source URL: http://www.aviationweek.com/avnow/news/channel_netdefense_story.jsp?id=news/032006p1.xml
Posted at: http://www.air-attack/com/news/news_article/1268

Australia's top planners began with the search for an airborne radar that could pick out very small targets at great distances. But that vision has made a quantum leap into the esoteric world of network-centric warfare with development of the Wedgetail aircraft.

Dubbed an airborne early warning and control aircraft (AEW&C), the name camouflages much more. As it's fielded in the next couple of years, the Boeing 737-based platform will become the hub of net-centric operations and conduct a wide range of active and passive surveillance.

Moreover, it will form one leg of a triad--along with UAVs carrying ground moving target indicators (GMTIs) and signals intelligence payloads--that can organize a battlespace and select key targets for bombing or nonkinetic attack.

With additional software modifications, the crucial multifunction electronically scanned array (MESA) radar could conceivably add a number of next-generation capabilities, including weapons effects, jamming and information warfare.

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