In an announcement earlier this week, the government has confirmed that Australia and the US are the first countries to use Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) between their navies.
First of the AWDs, HMAS Hobart shared sensor information and real-time combat system data with the US Navy during training and testing near Hawaii. HMAS Hobart established secure data links with the US Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS John Finn and shared tracking and fire control data across the two ships.
Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne said the trials were a significant milestone in the testing and qualifying of Hobart’s combat and weapons systems.
“These trials are the culmination of 12 months of preparations and demonstrate Hobart’s formidable capability,” Minister Pyne said. “Australia is the first country outside the US with CEC, and so this demonstration marked the first time this capability was proven between two navies.”
Commanding Officer HMAS Hobart, Captain John Stavridis, said the visit to the US had proven how closely the Australian and US navies can work together.
“Connecting and sharing data with the US Navy like this is an important step in increasing our interoperability with them, especially during linked task group operations at sea,” Captain Stavridis said. “Sharing information like this between ships at sea means that ships in a task group can know and respond to what is going on, including sharing tracking and targeting data.
“It means that a ship can detect and, if needed, engage a threat identified by another ship or aircraft, creating greater flexibility and better protection for all the ships involved.”
Cooperative Engagement Capability is one technology that will form a part of the Australian Joint Integrated Fires Capability being implemented in the ADF. Defence is planning to integrate the CEC into other ADF capabilities, including the E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and the Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) program down the road.
The CEC will also be integrated into the Hunter class’ Aegis combat management system, together with an interface developed by Saab Australia and the CEAFAR phased array radar, as part of a strategic enterprise approach to combat management systems.
ADM Comment: There has been a lot of talk on the conference circuit about ‘kill chains’ vs ‘kill webs’ and ‘any sensor, any shooter’ (or my favourite ‘any sensor, best shooter’) for some time now. These are concepts, not tied to any domain or specific platform.
Getting a true ‘any sensor, best shooter’ outcome between the Australian and US navies is an impressive achievement on the path towards a truly joint fire capability. It is the first of many such steps towards greater integration of the distributed sensor network as the digital nature of the battlefield becomes increasingly complex.