The Royal Australian Air Force and Rockwell Collins have demonstrated the successful transmission of wideband high frequency, or WBHF, communications from a ground station to an Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft.
During the Plan Jericho test, a ground station located in Geelong, Australia, transmitted data to a static C-17A.
"During the test, the ground station and aircraft exchanged several data transmissions including streaming video, real-time chat, file transfers and digital voice audio," a Rockwell Collins news release said. "This demonstration builds on the October 2015 trial of WBHF technology between a P-3C aircraft at RAAF Edinburgh and HMAS Harman in Canberra, and the August 2016 demonstration of modernized WBHF air-to-ground connectivity in a C-17 live flight test in cooperation with the United States Air Force."
"Being able to transfer secure data via the WBHF radio could provide greater operational resilience to the Australian Defense Force in the future, especially in satellite denied environments," said Group Capt. Carl Newman, the RAAF's director of Plan Jericho.
