Rockwell Collins awarded air support comms contract

Rockwell Collins has been awarded a Department of Defense contract to improve data links for air support.

Under the Digitally Aided Close Air Support contract awarded by the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, "Rockwell Collins will provide the DoD an open source aggregation framework to enable cross-platform data link communications on mobile devices for Windows and Android," according to a company news release.

"By enabling software engineers to quickly develop and integrate modules that can communicate with close air support platforms and call for fires (artillery) platforms, this framework will increase the military's ability to coordinate and execute air support, call for fires and greatly enhance situational awareness for troops on the ground," Rockwell Collins said. "Phase one of the agreement will focus on the Variable Message Format (VMF) and Cursor On Target (CoT) message formats, in addition to Link 16."

The technology will be available to all U.S. government organizations.

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