The system can operate across multiple pathways, including satellite connections and low-power tactical radios. It uses the Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency for Agile Combat Employment architecture, known as PACE4ACE, to automatically select the best available link and reroute traffic without operator input.
“For warfighters on the ground and in the cockpit, PACE4ACE helps ensure critical data never disappears, even under jamming,” said Dr. Sam Nelson, principal investigator at RTX BBN Technologies. “The network self-heals, so crews can focus on the mission instead of troubleshooting communications.”
During the demonstration, four geographically separated sites remained connected during the exercise. When high-capacity links were jammed, the system switched immediately to the next available waveform while maintaining situational awareness.
RTX said the system kept Open Mission Systems and Team Awareness Kit applications synchronized during the test. The demonstration showed how dispersed air support units could maintain secure communications using combinations of satellite, radio or low-power links.
PACE4ACE includes resilient self-healing communications, compact low-size, weight and power architecture, multiband support and plug-and-play integration with common mission systems. It also provides dynamic real-time routing to help maintain performance as conditions change.
The company said the demonstration validates the U.S. Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept. ACE is focused on enabling dispersed units to operate in contested conditions while maintaining mission command and support links.
Work on PACE4ACE is being conducted in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Long-range radios used in the test were provided by the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida, while high-frequency support came from Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, in Ottawa, Canada.
The material is based on work supported by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command under Contract No. FA8750-20-C-0544. RTX said any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Air Force.
