Boeing has spoken publicly for the first time about its Joint Battle Management Development Environment, which allows the company to experiment with Royal Australian Air Force capabilities in a laboratory setting
and get feedback on the way forward from the customer.
The lab, which has already been established in Brisbane, is at the heart of the company’s efforts relating to spiral upgrades and working on new or partner technologies for projects such as AIR 6500, upgrades to the Vigilare command and control system and the E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control platform.
“We have been very blessed in that the bulk of the RAAF force structure has got a Boeing logo on the side of it, and then there is Plan Jericho on how do you get all this stuff to synch better together,” said Dr Shane Arnott, director of Phantom Works International.
“So we have invested, and it has been Boeing internal research-and-development money that has gone into creating this environment, which is the real mission systems, so the real Wedgetail, the real P-8, the real Vigilare, the real Super Hornet, the real Growler.”
While threats are simulated, the Joint Battle Management Development Environment uses real mission systems as found aboard the real-world aircraft themselves.
“The next-generation fight that our forces are looking to face is a step up from what they are operating in today, so we are able to simulate what that looks like; we are able to then represent all the datalink traffic,” Dr Arnott said, speaking during a media briefing at the Avalon Airshow on Wednesday
