Global ASNT moves past preliminary design review

by Justin Oakes
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

2/4/2015 - HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- Recently, the Global ASNT program office -- which is responsible for acquiring and sustaining nuclear command, control and communications terminals -- completed their preliminary design review, gaining ground within the first of three incremental phases.

"The program is progressing right on schedule," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Decker, program manager for the Air Force's Global Aircrew Strategic Network Terminal here.

In December 2013 the Air Force awarded Raytheon a $134 million Increment 1 contract, a 36-month development effort where the company is responsible for developing new nuclear C3 terminals for the service's nuclear bomber mission. The effort will result in secure, survivable ground terminals at wing command posts that have the ability to receive emergency action messages, which are then relayed to bomber, tanker and reconnaissance aircrews for action.

"These terminals are the latest in the contractor's NC3 product line of Advanced Extremely High Frequency terminals ... and we are taking advantage of as much reuse as possible, given differing missions, capability requirements and environments," said Denise Williams, deputy program manager.

With the completion of the review, the program office starts "seeing different aspects of the design of the system, instead of just tracking requirements," Decker said.

The terminals will consist of an antenna, a power distribution rack and the "brains" of the unit -- a radio and mission equipment cabinet. The cabinets and antenna are required to withstand appropriate after-effects of a nuclear event.

The operational requirement calls for 90 terminals, roughly half of which must be transportable. While not an airborne system, the transportable terminals will be identical in design to the fixed ground locations and able to be moved to different locations as the mission dictates.

Based on the outcome of the PDR, the next significant hurdle to clear is the critical design review, which is anticipated for April, according to the program office. CDR is the stage where the design plan is finalized, as Global ASNT moves toward Milestone C. The "bending metal" phase begins after CDR, which progresses to both contractor and government test and evaluation to prove out the design. During Milestone C, the team will show the program's readiness to enter the production phase, according to Decker.

"Increment 1 provides the backbone and infrastructure for Increments 2 and 3," said Decker, who also stated there is no guarantee that those contracts will fall to the current contract holder. "The remaining two contracts will be full and open source competition."

While Increment 1 focuses on the engineering and manufacturing development of the C3 terminals, Increment 2 will be geared toward the distribution of emergency action messages via personal alerting, radios and klaxons. Increment 3, the last of the contract stages, will provide a redundant receive capability utilizing low frequency/very low frequency channels.

"The successful completion of PDR is a big step for our program and we are right on track for CDR this spring," Decker said. "I couldn't be more pleased with our government/contractor team, and the dedication to delivering this crucial NC3 capability to the warfighter."