Northrop Grumman demonstrates C2 in multinational NATO exercise

Land February 17, 2021

Northrop Grumman’s UK team has successfully demonstrated its command and control (C2) system in a denied satellite communications (SATCOM) environment during NATO’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXercise (CWIX 2020).

The fully distributed virtual event connected force labs in the UK and the US. across the classified Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network to test tactics and technology in a range of scenarios and SATCOM-denied environments.

As the industry lead for this task supporting CWIX 2020, Northrop Grumman UK teamed with Dstl and Thales UK to create a simulated network environment. Northrop Grumman installed its Interoperable C4I Services (ICS) product, to deliver track management capabilities on this simulated alternative beyond-line-of-sight communications network.

SATCOM remains essential to Joint, All Domain, Command and Control (JADC2) but faces challenges in a denied, degraded or disrupted space environment. When disruptions occur, joint forces must maintain the ability to share time-sensitive information such as a common operating picture on alternative beyond-line-of-sight communications networks, despite their lower bandwidth, higher-latency and inconsistent quality-of-service compared to communications satellites.

Northrop Grumman’s ICS is used by over 3,000 customers globally and is based on the Common Operating Environment (COE) software on which systems such as the Global Command and Control System are built.

ICS ensures interoperability with other COE-based systems and allows additional third-party applications to be incorporated for customers with mission-specific service requirements.

Ben Palmer, Group Director, Northrop Grumman, said: “The successful experiment, delivered under the Serapis framework, included a military track management capability applicable to both the maritime and land domains.

“Northrop Grumman’s UK team demonstrated their ability to deliver, integrate and operate systems for NATO forces to fully test SATCOM operations in advanced, real-life scenarios.”