Colonel Oliver Stead of 1st Aviation Brigade Combat Team, explained how this will work:
“What this project is seeking to do is link a battlefield reconnaissance helicopter into the Bowman Data Network, which means we’ll be able to share digital information about the positions of the enemy. What that will mean is that a Wildcat will be out in a tactical position, it will identify an enemy vehicle or location, and will be able to transmit that over the Bowman network.
The goal is to tie it into the artillery fire control system so they can then prosecute the target or to send it to other users who would do that. When combined with the Army’s latest Attack Helicopter, the AH-64E, it will significantly enhance the Army’s Attack Reconnaissance Teams by reducing the time it takes to pass targeting information around the battlespace.”
It will allow the Wildcat to share battlefield data more efficiently, making it a “more effective reconnaissance platform and giving it the ability to quickly neutralise targets”.
The TDL will be integrated into Wildcat’s existing sensor suite, reducing the need for voice communications and increasing its ability to work with other digital networks.
If the trials are successful, this will be the first time that Bowman Data has been integrated into a battlefield helicopter.
The TDL is part of the British Army’s modernisation efforts under the Future Soldier program, which aims to increase the army’s lethality, agility, and expeditionary capabilities.
It doesn’t already have a data link? How does it pass info back to the ship for the navy or to army units?
Carrier pigeon or post it note.
Or they finally implemented the pigeon-guided missile concept after all.
Maybe not pigeons but they certainly could do with guided missiles for the wildcat. Seems nuts that a recon aircraft has no real offensive capability to strike at targets it discovers.
Agree Steve maybe give them a pea shooter ,anything to save money 🙄
The Martlet missile is currently being tested on the wildcat
Only for the navy version.
Or use a manual camera and download the SD card onto a laptop – couldn’t believe it on the recent T45 program….shocking.
For a live camera feed you would need something like a Rover 4 fit on the aircraft and ship. I have been on ships that have had it fitted and its a straight forward bit of kit to use. The only aircraft I have seen it on where Merlin, Seaking and drones. We demo’d Rover 4 to MPs and VVIP’s on Bulwark at Greenwich prior to the 2012 Olympics. A Seaking was watching an RM assault team from a good 5Km away in thermal as they stormed the Bridge area. Listening to the comments of MPs and Ministers watching it… Read more »
Often the comments of VIP’s are unbelievable as well as unbelievably revealing of the reference points against which they process information.
https://www.l3harris.com/all-capabilities/rover-6s-transceiver
The version we had did have encrypted up/down link and most of the features detailed in Rov 6. An early finding from Afgan when using early versions of Rover kit was anyone with a simple receiver and a laptop could piggy back the feed and see what everyone else was seeing so hence the need for encryption.
It looks, to me, like it is based on wireless outside broadcast kit.
Its incredible the US was that dumb when developing it…should have been one of the first requirements on the list.
They had, through the UK’slistening station in Cyprus, been watching Israeli UAV feeds for years for exactly the same reason….
And had also had the Serbs release video from the CIA’s Gnat 750 drones operating over Kosovo in the 90’s…again unencrypted…
It was a bit heath robinson.
It already had Link 16, the TDL is a converter between Link 16 as used by Navy/Airforce and Bowman as used by Infantry.
I don’t think so.
“The tactical data link (TDL) that would allow reconnaissance and targeting data to be sent securely to and from the ship was deleted from the Wildcat specification. During the recent documentary about HMS Duncan operating in the Black Sea, we were treated to the spectacle of the aircrew having just landed on the ship rushing to the ops room to allow imagery shot from the helicopter to be downloaded from a laptop.”
Navy Lookout, 2019
I thought the UK version didn’t have link 16, as it was cut for cost saving reasons? So all targeting info had to be sent via good old vocal communication
If it has Link16 it doesn’t appear to be connected to much….
it might surprise you, but Apache AH1 also didn’t have a data link, so on the ground we had to talk them into targets and they had to describe to us on the ground what they could see. Same with Chinook on MERT, once in the air they received no update on the casualty nor did they receive any navigational update. So on the ground you had to be super accurate on your EHLS grid on the first 9 Liner – they literally flew on a bearing and looked for the smoke you threw at one minute out to home… Read more »
It’s quite basic stuff and leaving it out as cost saving measure is madness. On the battlefield accurate up to date information is king.
Glad they are sorting this out now.
what 3 words?
Wasted by savings?
I don’t know, not my department, blame the predecessor,
What 3 words were u thinking of?
its the location app, available for free on your mobile.
A great capability, and about time too. Every frontline air asset should be fitted with secure datalinks. Information is king, and he who has the best battle space picture and the best situational awareness will win the fight. Combat air, helicopters, ISTAR, warships, troops on the ground, vehicles. Everything should be networked together.
From your mouth to the Ministry’s ear!
That’s been the theoretical goal since around 2004, when the Network Enabled Capability was first publicised, and which died shortly after 2012 when the 2010 review’s cuts kicked in. The goal was to link all sensors, effectors and command personnel. This was revitalised in 2018/19 when the new Defence Digital function started up within Stratcom and is now seen as a top Defence priority, part of the Digital Backbone. It’s just so frustratingly slow.
Thanks for the info Jon. Amazing how long some capabilities take to get to the frontline. JTIDS/Link16 has been around since the early 90s, and did wonders for the Tornado F3, one of the first datalinked platforms.
“It’s just so frustratingly slow.”
Just like our endless UAV trials! 🙄
The headline is right “a” new eye in the sky, just one, a test demonstrator. Not on each Wildcat. Having TDLs is surely a no-brainer. The job was given to DSTL who gave it to Leonardo, who started out creating a ground demonstrator in 2021, then this flying demonstrator in 2022 and finally the commands are getting around to deciding whether to roll it out over “the following years”. This is described on gov.uk as a rapid programme of work. Also what about the radar? At the same time the Navy lent the Army a couple of marine Wildcats equipped… Read more »
‘The following years?’…🤔😳☹️
How is it that Aegis has been a thing for decades yet we’re just now deciding datalinks on reconnaissance helicopters might be useful?
When did Aegis get integrated to the MH60’s? Just curious as im sure its not been on them for a huge length of time but could be wrong!
I think it was the LAMPS system.
The MH-60 retransmitted the sonobuoy data that was calculated in the ship at time computers were not that light.
RN was processing Sonobouy info onboard certain ships in 1997( What was happening in 97 and where might we have been?). Our Lynx could hand drop buoys from the cabin and the data was fed back and processed onboard.
We had so much extra kit fitted it was unreal. If an alien little green man on Mars operated a microvave oven we would have heard it and been able to work out what he was eating!
What with the NSM decision you could be forgiven for thinking that the MOD are changing their behaviour from cheese pairing to sensible, overdue value for money capabilities. Is this the Ben Wallace effect?
Wallace never pares his cheese. He’d never ruin a nice bit of Wensleydale.
I’m sure Ben Wallace means well, and he’s certainly doen well on Ukraine…
But we’re not seeing much holding to account of Army leadership on his watch, no great rebuilding of a broken procurement system, no sensible land industrial strategy (or for that matter any grand Conservative led industrial strategy, after 13 years of their government) or the sort of openness that leads to change…
It’s pretty clear now that under the conservatives, over the last 10 years the population of the UK has been the subject of an ultra libertarian, Adam Smith, low tax laboratory experiment…lots of liberté and egalité and naff all fraternité. Public servants ( armed forces, NHS, teachers, civil servants) are lauded as heros in public but deliberately run down in policy in the belief that their tasks are better done in the private sector of the economy. I believe that you could afford to give nurses a 400% rise and still have change out of what the NHS spends on… Read more »
The feeling that you get that pilots and ground forces would get better and more timely combat information just communicating by civilian smartphone that was bought last year than by obsolescent military tech from 20 years ago…like Fat Bowman…
Wasn’t that exactly what was happening in Iraq /Ukraine. Forces were buying mobile phones to communicate as the radios weren’t working properly
I know about the hacks Russians and Ukranians had to do, but i am not aware of allied forces in Iraq. Still would not surprise me.
I mean Iranians could hack the ” military transmissions” of a sophisticated US drone.
Why on earth does the Army not put the Martlet missile on Wildcat given it’s already on the Navy version? This kind of not invented here syndrome drives me nuts. Someone’s probably worried about protecting AH64E “But you already have missiles – do you really need Apache?”