Airborne intelligence platform joins Army exercise

An aircraft system that can take information from multiple sensors and distribute that information to military units participated in the Army’s C4ISR On-the-Move exercise held last month.

Designed by Lockheed Martin Corp., the Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) flew support missions for the Army’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate and was one of several sensor-gathering platforms participating in the event, company officials said Sept. 9.

The AML gathered high-quality intelligence through a system of onboard sensors and then relayed the intelligence to a ground station. At that point, the ground station transmitted the data to the Army’s Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS-A) for further analysis and distribution to the Army’s battle command system, the officials said.

DCGS-A pulls together intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data and stores it in a single system that is used to push information to commanders in the field.

The airborne laboratory collected radio signals from the sensors and confirmed the information with an advanced high-definition, electro-optical infrared sensor provided by FLIR Systems Inc.

The AML is housed in a modified Gulfstream III business jet aircraft. The airborne laboratory uses an open architecture and offers a reconfigurable platform to rapidly test, explore, identify and validate how multiple sensors and onboard systems interact.

The airborne laboratory is intended for specific military, strategic intelligence and homeland security mission needs, the officials said.

The C4ISR On-the-Move exercise was held at Lakehurst Naval Engineering Air Station and Fort Dix, both located in New Jersey.