Adv Field Artillery Tactical Data System(AFA)

Abstract

There are two developmental efforts that are being executed concurrently on this budget item. They are Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) based Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs). AFATDS provides the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps automated fire support command, control and communications and functions as the land component’s automated Fire Support Command and Control (FSC2) system. AFATDS is used in the Fires Warfighting Function to plan, execute, and deliver lethal and non-lethal effects within the overall Mission Command and Control (MC2) enterprise. Additionally, the system interoperates and integrates with over 80 different battlefield systems, to include Navy and Air Force command and control weapon systems; and the German, French, Turkish, and Italian fire support systems. AFATDS fuses the essential situational awareness (SA) data, intelligence information and targeting data, in near real time, in order to effectively manage target selection and target engagement in accordance with the Maneuver Commanders guidance and priorities. Additionally, the system will pair targets to weapons to provide optimum use of fire support assets and timely execution of fire missions. Also, the system automates the planning, coordinating, and controlling of all fire support assets (field artillery, mortars, close air support, naval gunfire, attack helicopters, offensive electronic warfare, fire support meteorological systems, forward observers, and fire support radars). Furthermore, the system will automatically implement detailed commander's guidance in the automation of operational planning, movement control, targeting, target value analysis, and fire support planning. Currently, the system interoperates with the other Army mission command systems, and is being used in operations in Afghanistan. The program office is currently fielding non-developmental, rugged common hardware, running the Windows Operating System. The total force will be fielded a Windows based platform by fiscal year 2013. Currently, AFATDS Version 6.8 and 6.8.X are being developed and expect to achieve Full Materiel Releases (FMR) in 2Q FY2013 and 2Q FY2015. With the completion of AFATDS Version 6.8.X, the program office will complete the AFATDS Increment 1 requirements and will start the Increment 2 development in 4Q FY2014. GPS-based PGMs require pre-launch loading of sufficient GPS Satellite related data down at the Weapon Platform level to enable delivery of Precision Capable Fires. This hot start capability allows for rapid post-launch time-to-first-fix of GPS signal and maximum utilization of PGM maneuver authority to ensure required target engagement performance. This is especially critical for short flight times and steer-early solutions such as Mortar and Cannon based PGMs. Local GPS Satellite visibility challenges due to vertical terrain/complex environment issues during normal combat operations can prohibit Precision Capable Fires when using GPS Satellite data generated exclusively at the Firing Weapon Platform. A system-of-systems Network Assisted GPS capability will be developed, integrated, and validated to overcome local GPS Satellite masking problems through the sharing of sufficient timely required GPS Satellite data via Wide-Area Network (WAN) and Local-Area Network (LAN) based materiel solutions that effectively and efficiently leverage mature Technologies and taxpayer investments of existing acquisition programs.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2014
• Source ID: 322_0203726A_7_2040_PB_2014

Tags

Readers

• Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.
• Munitions and Ordnance Engineering
• Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technology.

Technology Areas

• Fully Networked C3
• Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
• Microelectronics
• Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems
• Space