NATO Commanders attending the Command and Control Commanders Conference April 20, 2021 listen to a briefing about exercise Astral Knight 21 in Chania, Crete.

WASHINGTON: The Air Force demonstrated both a new communications network and a mobile C2 system to link US services, allies and partner nations for the first time during this year’s multinational Astral Knight exercise in Europe. The capability will be key to the service’s emerging Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

“For the first time ever, we have accomplished a high level of integration with our allies and partners through new communications software called Air Component Battle Network. This network enabled us to seamlessly communicate over secure channels and provide a clear shared picture of simultaneous operations across the theater,” Maj. Gen. Greg Semmel, Air National Guard assistant to the commander at Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces in Africa Command (USAFE-AFAF), said in a May 21 online audio briefing on Astral Knight 21 published by the State Department.

The joint, multinational exercise, held May 13-21, involved US airmen, soldiers and sailors from USAFE-AFAF, US Army Europe-Africa, Special Operations Command Europe and US Naval Forces Europe who worked with Albanian, Croatian, Hellenic, Italian, and Slovenian forces, according to a USAFE-AFRICA press release. The aircraft included: “Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles; F-16s; HH-60 Pave Hawks and C-130J Super Hercules aircraft; Italian Air Force F-35 Lightning II aircraft; Hellenic Air Force F-16s and Emb-145 Erieye aircraft; and Croatian MiG-21 BisD/UMD aircraft.”

During the exercise, the ACBN fed radar data, including from the Air Force’s sister services and partner nations, to the Theater Operationally Resilient Command and Control (TORCC) system. It’s built by Global C2 Integration Technologies (GC2IT) to provide mobile C2 capability to commanders on the ground.

TORCC “is a miniaturized Control and Reporting Center” comprising “sensor inputs, operator hardware, radios and links” that can be “packed into six ruggedized kits, not including radio needs,” Staff Sgt. Valerie Halbert, a spokesperson for the 31st Air Wing headquartered at Aviano Air Base in Italy, said in an email.

“The light weight, rapidly deployable capability of TORCC combined with its customizable configurations allow Commanders to deploy small C2 teams forward with a significantly smaller footprint and more reliability than existing systems of record,” Jeff Sundberg, director of operations at GC2IT, said in an email.

The 606th Air Control Squadron successfully used TORCC  for the first time during the Astral Knight exercise to relay “IAMD [integrated air and missile defense] and command and control to pilots participating in the exercise, including directions for missions and threat awareness,” says a press release from the 31st Wing. 

“We are developing proof of [concept of operations] for future TORCC deployments in and around USAFE-AFAF [US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces in Africa Command],” Capt. Daniel Eyrolles, 606th ACS chief of agile mission and site lead in Croatia for Astral Knight 21, said in the release.

“TORCC is currently supporting several tactical C2 missions in multiple theaters that are employing sets from air defense to training and exercise support,” Sundberg said. “There is growing interest among USAF leadership to integrate additional TORCC systems in a variety of roles from distributed tactical nodes, to Wing Operations Centers and to support operational [continuity of operations] capabilities. Since initial fielding in 2019, TORCC as a system continues to evolve in design and capability based upon emerging technologies and customer’s requirements.”

In particular, he added, TORCC systems are being used by various commands “to test and validate” Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and Agile Combat Employment concepts of operations.

“The TORCC system is a stepping stone towards these strategies,” Halbert explained. “The system was purchased to provide USAFE with the capability for Agile Command and Control, which ultimately ties into the ABMS/JADC2 strategy.”

She added that the 606th ACS “created a separate directorate within the squadron, the Squadron Combat Ready Agile Mission (SCRAM) shop, who are responsible for the TORCC system and figuring out how to best employ it.”

Neither Sundberg nor Halbert disclosed contract amounts for the deployment of TORCC systems with the 606th ACS.

Air Force acquisition of TORCC systems “has been, and continues to be, based on a unit’s or Command’s priorities and requirements,” Sundberg said.

In addition to selling the system to USAFE-AFAF, GC2IT in September 2020 won an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract under the fourth tranche of awards by the ABMS program. Those contracts technically are worth between $1,000 and $950 million, but according to the official contract completion notice in December, the company was awarded $3,800 as a first increment.

At the moment, Halbert said, it remains unknown how the system will be integrated into ABMS in the future because the 606th ACS is still in a testing phase.

“The TORCC system is currently operating under an Interim Authority to Test (IATT) which includes these conops. The 606th ACS is working towards an Authority to Operate (ATO) which will provide the Authority to Connect (ATC) to other systems and domains,” she said.

Milestones for the testing effort, she elaborated, include:

  • Securing the ATO, which requires proving that TORCC meets DoD requirements for cybersecurity. “Much of the squadron’s ability to integrate into other domains they hope to connect the system to is dependent upon the TORCC achieving an ATO,” Halbert said.
  • Training airmen to use TORCC and accomplish C2 tasks they “wouldn’t normally be responsible for,” Halbert said, such as “an aircraft controller setting up radio antennas or programming radios.” This will allow the service to deploy fewer people to the theater — part of the goal of the service’s Agile Combat Employment strategy.
  • Host nation integrations. This requires the squadron to develop “radar sharing agreements with host nations” within USAFE-AFAF’s area of responsibility so data from non-US radar can flow into TORCC. Halbert explained that the 606th ACS was able to do this during the exercise with “temporary exercise agreements.” The squadron “aims to establish more permanent Letters of Agreement with Italy first and foremost, and then expanding to other nations around USAFE.”