Improved Station Keeping Equipment

This program will apply a covert (LPI/LPD) RF technology to precision aircraft station keeping in which trail aircraft measure range and bearing to the lead based on reception of the lead's LPI signal; the signal has high bandwidth and very low duty cycle, leading to low energy, high processing gain reception with substntial TRANSEC (transmission security). All required SKE command / acknowledgement information will be encoded in the LPI signals, so no other communication system is required; the improved SKE is therefore protected from passive EW detection. This system operates in all weather, and can operate in GPS denied environments. BENEFIT: The most important benefit of this system is its elimination of SKE vulnerability to detection by passive EW, thereby denying enemies the opportunity to alert their air defenses many minutes before the force arrives at the DZ. Such alerting creates intolerable risk of loss of aircraft and personnel. Since active EW (radar) will alert the force to enemy detection, immunity to passive EW detection removes a significant threat of surprise. This system also provides simplified operation, increased range and precision, and increased capacity overall, with anticipated significant cost reduction. This will lead to improved airdrop and other related USAF capabilities, thus justifying integration of the advanced SKE on more aircraft. Future civilian applications may include very close in-trail formation flying for reduced fuel consumption; use of'platooning'by air traffic control to allow handling flights of several aircraft as a single unit, thereby freeing up ATC resources and reducing airway congestion. Similarly, the technology could support'platooning'of highway vehicles, as contemplated in some planning for future automated vehicle and highway systems.