![]() ![]() Two different aircraft platforms that fly the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system, developed by the Northrop Grumman Corporation, have been officially designated by the US Air Force as the E-11A and the EQ-4B. The Air Force expected to take possession of the aircraft in July 2011, after which it assumed the designation E-11A. "The prime contractor understands the military is looking to effectively use every dollar provided and worked hand-in-hand with the government team to facilitate the transition of this new platform into the inventory," a spokesman for the Electronics System Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., told the Daily Report Thursday. The Air Force had been leasing this aircraft, but then decided it would make more business sense to purchase it. ![]() This aircraft carries Northrop Grumman's Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, which allows disparate battlefield communications systems to share data. ![]() In June 2011 the Air Force announced the purchase of a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express aircraft for use as an overhead communications-relay platform in Southwest Asia. The payload, or package of sensors carried on the E-11A, allows command and control to get in contact with the troops on the ground, and vice versa, to enable mission accomplishment, Breth said. The BACN works to ensure a consistent and effective form of communication in nearly any location or environment, significantly reducing the possibility of communication failure and increasing the rate of mission success. The operation became well known following the success of the book and subsequent movie “Lone Survivor” by Marcus Luttrell, a former SEAL and the only surviving member of the mission.ĭue to Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain and lack of existing communication infrastructure, serious communication challenges prevented the four-man SEAL patrol from effectively establishing contact with their combat operations center, leaving them vulnerable to the attacks that claimed the lives of 19 U.S. military mission in Kunar Province, Afghanistan in 2005. The BACN was developed in direct response to the communication shortfalls during Operation Red Wings, a joint U.S. BACN “is like Wi-Fi in the sky,” explained U.S. Air Force’s E-11A aircraft with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node payload are assigned to the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron and operate solely out of Kandahar Airfield. Re-designated E-11A under special electronics installation category.Īll of the U.S. BACN was deployed on a test Bombardier BD-700 & originally designated RC-700A under reconnaissance classification. It carries Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, allowing disparate battlefield communications systems to share data. Bombardier E-11A is the military variant of the civil Bombardier BD-700 Global Express for use as overhead communications-relay platform in SW Asia. ![]()
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