TDL: The key challenges and outlook

0

Rate this Article: (3.8 Stars | 4 Votes)   Thanks for your rating!

Speaking to Defence IQ’s Richard de Silva recently, Paul Langdon, Senior Consultant at 3SDL with over 20 years experience in tactical data links (TDL) operation, management and flight testing, discussed his views on the evolving TDL technology landscape, including the testing and processes involved.

So, what are the key challenges facing the TDL community currently? Is TDL advancement happening at an acceptable rate? In terms of challenges, Langdon explained that interoperability is a critical obstacle in TDL, and one that isn’t getting any easier.

“Interoperability has always been a challenge with the tactical data link community, and it still is,” Langdon stated.

“Data links in the ISTAR domain have made interoperability a difficult task due to a lack of effective governance. There are little or no standardisation agreements for example.”

Interoperability is also a key issue for the wider defence community, providing headaches to both industry and government alike. It’s widely accepted that interoperable technologies would provide militaries with operationally superior equipment as well as reducing the burden on government acquisition teams. However, the stark technical, commercial, political and economic concerns in achieving this common operating platform make the reality of its implementation a distant ambition.

Langdon sees similar issues for the development of TDL regarding interoperability. “In terms of progress, it’s very slow unfortunately.” However, he does go on to state that, “we have seen the introduction of data links gateways to overcome this issue.”

According to Langdon the process for testing TDL has changed very little over the years, suggesting that this should be reviewed to facilitate and aid development.

“The proposal for testing tactical data links on a major platform is very similar to that which was in place many years ago,” Langdon said.

But he went on to make a distinction between land and air. “For airborne platforms it’s much the same process, for ground-based command and control systems the process has become slightly more complex with the introduction of multi-terminal architectures.”

In the future Langdon expects the use of multi-terminal architecture to drive requirements in the TDL market. “We need to have more focus on thought in the multi-terminal architecture aspects,” he said.

As a result the industry needs to increase the number of people working on these platforms to create an appropriate knowledge base from which to develop further.

“In terms of the training and the process, as we move towards more multi-terminal architectures, we are finding that the level of experience has to be increased. The level of personnel in position has to increase. We can’t just relax and satisfy ourselves on three year tours in position in my opinion. We have to increase that experience to five years and it has to be promoted throughout organisations.”

Contributor:   Andrew Elwell

Andrew graduated from The University of Nottingham with an MA in History in 2003. After graduating Andrew started his career with a niche armour systems manufacturer, which provided ballisitic and blast armour products for the international defence market. His first major undertaking was to project manage a UOR up-armour programme for an in-theatre MoD vehicle. After completion of the contract, Andrew headed up the research and development department at the company. This involved designing, developing, testing and presenting new armour solutions to defeat customer specific threats to all major European and International ballistic and blast standards.

Following this Andrew moved behind the desk and became Senior Editor at a news and data provider, offering proprietary analysis, intelligence, market research and data on the global security and defence industry. The role offered the chance to write widely on the industry, exploring new technologies and getting to grips with corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and debt and equity fundraisings.

You Should Check Out:

Rugged Electronics Report for Duty in the Digital Battlespace

What's the solution to open architecture?