In an award winning engineering activity, P-3 Accord partners Defence, BAE Systems Australia and Australian Aerospace rapidly acquired, integrated, tested and fielded the AP-3C Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) capability for the AP-3C aircraft.
The DMO delivered the TCDL capability to a very aggressive schedule and under budget through the strategic alliance.
The capability is now being introduced on all AP-3C aircraft under the AIR 5276 CAP1 project.
Australian Orion’s are now better placed to support Coalition operations in the Middle East with the introduction of ‘real time’ tactical video links to support ground and maritime forces.
The upgrade enables RAAF Orion crews to provide Coalition commanders with valuable real time aerial views of their surrounding environment.
The introduction of TCDL technology means that detailed, aerial visuals of an area can be beamed to ground troops, day or night, to help identify hostile or suspicious activities.
This has never been successfully done by any major Australian Defence systems to date, let alone from an aircraft to individual soldiers.
Traditionally maritime patrol aircraft, AP-3C Orions have been conducting overland patrols of Iraq, in addition to watching over international waters in the Persian Gulf since late 2003.