Why the E-10A?
01 June 2004

There has been much discussion recently regarding the operational need and mission of the Air Force’s planned E-10A, formerly known as the Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A). In an effort to clear up confusion, let me review the E-10A’s operational need, explain its development history and highlight the transformational capabilities it will deliver to America’s joint war fighters.

The E-10A did not develop in a vacuum. Instead, it fills capability gaps and shortfalls identified through extensive studies of recent joint operations and through the Air Force’s Capabilities Review and Risk Assessment process.

First, these studies noted a capability objective to address a growing cruise-missile threat to American and coalition forces and to the U.S. homeland. In addition, lessons from recent operations highlighted the importance of persistent, all-weather identification of fixed and moving targets and requirements for “decision quality” common operational pictures and predictive battle-space awareness. Finally, dynamic time-sensitive operations may require forward-deployed decision-making and decentralized execution to shorten the joint kill chain.

The E-10A’s transformational capabilities are being developed to address:

** Cruise-missile defense (CMD) — enabled by a highly advanced radar capable of countering next-generation cruise missiles.

** Battle-space awareness — horizontally and vertically integrated precision surface/air surveillance for decision-quality common operational pictures.

** Battle management command and control (BMC2) — an on-board mission-tailored tool set that provides forward-deployed joint decision-makers the capability to execute time-sensitive operations.

The E-10A program represents the intersection of multiple, complementary Air Force transformational visions that are being realized while the underlying technology and operational constructs mature. Two factors formed the genesis of the E-10A program: development of the Radar Technology Insertion Program (RTIP) radar and the Air Force’s desire to recapitalize an aging command-and-control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C2ISR) fleet.

The RTIP radar began development in 1996 as a product improvement for the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) fleet to provide enhanced surface-surveillance capability using active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology. In 2000, Defense Department leaders expressed interest in the development of modular and scalable AESA radar arrays that could be integrated on a variety of manned and unmanned airborne platforms. Thus, RTIP became the Multi-Platform RTIP (MP-RTIP).

The RTIP to MP-RTIP transition included an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) conducted by the Air Force Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center in 2001. It was meant to select the best platform to host the advanced AESA sensor, as well as a radar-sizing study intended to maximize the radar’s performance against cruise missiles.

The AoA indicated there could be significant capability improvements in cruise-missile defense detection if the size of the large-scale MP-RTIP sensor was increased. The AoA considered a number of aircraft platforms and recommended the Boeing 767-400ER airframe since it provided the best field of view to size the MP-RTIP sensor for improved CMD detection, and had adequate weight, power and cooling margins for future growth.

As a result, the Air Force is purchasing a 767-400ER for the test-bed aircraft to host the MP-RTIP radar, but will delay a platform choice for the production E-10A fleet until the summer of 2005. Subsequent radar-engineering studies conducted in 2002 confirmed the AoA findings and determined the optimum size for the large-scale MP-RTIP sensor for CMD detection. These results increased the height of the sensor to nearly twice the original size.

In addition to on-board operations and computing systems required to support radar operations, the war fighter recognized the potential to develop BMC2 capabilities that would make it a key node in the emerging Joint C2ISR architectures, enabling true network-centric operations.

The BMC2 open-system architecture will achieve several Air Force goals. It will eliminate reliance on expensive, stove-piped, proprietary computing architectures specific to each C2ISR platform. It will allow spiral development for rapid insertion of technology advances across multiple command-and-control systems. The architecture also will move toward the vision of network-centric operations with a common operational picture across the command-and-control constellation. This transformational network-centric BMC2 system (what we now call MC2A) will become the underpinning info-structure to link command-and-control elements into a seamless grid for rapid joint decision-making.

The Air Force’s visionary coalescence of the large-sized MP-RTIP sensor and a BMC2 open-system architecture for network-centric operations on a single aircraft was supported by the July 2002 release of the fiscal 2004-2009 Defense Planning Guidance. It directed that “the Air Force should program to deploy, by 2012, four aircraft equipped with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program radar for cruise missile defense and ground-moving-target-indicator capability. The Air Force should assess transitioning to a new wide-body aircraft as part of the fiscal 2004 Program Objective Memorandum submission.”

The secretary of the Air Force, James Roche, clearly stated the way ahead during his February address at the Air Force Association National Convention in Orlando, Fla. He said the E-10 series of aircraft is envisioned to include the E-10A with the MP-RTIP CMD and precision surface-surveillance radar. It also will have the E-10B with an advanced 360-degree air surveillance radar (to eventually replace the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, aircraft) and the E-10C with a new signals-intelligence sensor (to eventually replace the RC-135 Rivet Joint). Each variant shares a common integration and BMC2 suite.

The value of the E-10A is in the sum of its capabilities, not in individual elements. The E-10A, with next-generation radar for cruise-missile defense and enhanced surface surveillance, and its integration and BMC2 suite supporting mission-tailored joint battle-staff elements, presents a flexible and capable weapon system forward in the battle space. Simply put, the E-10A allows us to enter a theater of operations rapidly and apply combat power immediately. It will bring a persistent, high-fidelity capability to detect the threat, identify it quickly and provide target cueing to “shooters” to kill the threat and shorten the joint kill chain. The E-10A’s leading-edge communications systems will ensure wide-band, high-speed, machine-to-machine interoperability with joint and coalition forces in overseas theaters of operation and a gateway to the global information grid.

As we have outlined this description to joint war fighters, their reaction is loud and clear — they want the E-10A and its transformational capabilities. It will have significant impact on our ability to conduct joint warfare.

Brig. Gen. Stephen M. Goldfein, within the office of the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for air and space operations, commanded the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Va., from 2000 to 2002 and served as deputy director for joint war-fighting capability assessments in the Joint Staff’s directorate of force structure, resources and assessment in 2002-2003.

any more information on the multi platform insertion program and what about its globalhawk radar?

More on that tomorrow…