Page 72 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

72 AIRPOWER
NOVEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
Warfare aircraft to Singapore for what Defence says are ‘maritime domain awareness’ missions that it stresses are conducted in ‘international airspace’.
In addition to these operational taskings, the RAAF has also increased its interactions with the Japan Air Self-De- fense Force, whether within the framework of the US alli- ance at exercises like Cope North in Guam, or at bilateral exercises like Bushido Guardian.
As China’s assertiveness in the region and military capa- bilities continue to grow, US allies and partner nations in the region are likely to increasingly move
closer in an effort to balance against bur-
provide multiple, simultaneous communication paths through different nets. Considered the standard by which other systems are measured for secure, airborne situation- al awareness, Link 16 has increased situational awareness by providing users with an improved tactical picture and reducing the need to exchange information using less reli- able voice communications.
Link 16 improves security, jam resistance, and situ- ational awareness compared to other equivalents, while also increasing data throughput and the capacity of in-
geoning Chinese power.
As such, their increasingly aligned capa-
bilities in the air domain and their similar assessments of the geopolitical situation represent an opportunity to further the relationships the RAAF has with these na- tions – in areas like networking, training or mutual support in mid-air refuelling operations to improve interoperability.
NETWORKING
One of the biggest game-changers in the air domain in recent times has been the proliferation of networked sys- tems. The most widespread of these is the Link 16 da- talink, which is the standardised communications system used by US, NATO, and coalition forces for transmitting and exchanging real time tactical data using links between allied military network participants.
It uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to
formation exchanged. It also provides secure voice capability, relative naviga- tion capability, and precise participant location and identification.
Data is transmitted via Link 16 termi- nals found in a range of platforms, includ- ing aircraft, surface ships, ground vehi- cles, missile defence systems, networked weapons, and command and control net- works. These terminals can operate Link
“THE RAAF IS ALSO CONTINUING ENGAGEMENT WITH REGIONAL NATIONS VIA TRAINING ACTIVITIES”
16 capabilities exclusively or can combine Link 16 func- tions with other advanced military waveforms.
Several regional countries use Link 16 on their air plat- forms, including Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea. However, to this writer’s knowledge there is yet to be an occasion where these countries have shared infor-
ABOVE: Australia has supplied a number of former RAAF C-130H Hercules aircraft to the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU)
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