The US Navy and an industry team that includes Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and Raytheon recently completed the successful demonstration of the Enterprise Expeditionary Strike Warfare Architecture (eESWA), an advanced targeting and strike capability that will drive the requirements for network-centric strike systems of the future.
The experimental demo showcases how a horizontally integrated, web-enabled capability can dramatically accelerate the sensor-to-shooter cycle from several hours to single-digit minutes.
The initial eESWA demonstration, held in July at the Precision Engagement Center at China Lake, CA, brought together for the first time an integrated, open architecture for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), time-critical targeting and strike mission planning and execution. The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Mission Planning and Tomahawk Command and Control Directorate led the effort and each member of the industry team supplied leading edge technologies for the purpose of demonstrating proof-of-concept operations.
The demonstration featured scenarios for both deliberative strike and time sensitive strike. The deliberative strike scenario included intelligence preparation of the battle space and normal strike planning operations from the Air Tasking Order consumption through strike planning and weaponeering. The time sensitive strike scenario introduced targets of opportunity into the environment. With the eESWA architecture, operators were able to prepare a completed strike package ready for execution under both scenarios. The Navy will use the data gathered from this demonstration to drive the requirements for future programs, including the next JSIPS-N commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) refresh, scheduled for 2005.