Laser communications

The outcome is expected to contribute to:

• the enhancement of information superiority during EU missions and operations;
• the effectiveness and unity of command during ISTAR operations;
• the enhancement of the EU freedom of action in the field of ISTAR, but also joint electronic warfare, hence reinforcing the strategic autonomy of the EU;
• the increase of survivability of UAS, notably MALE RPAS, due to the drastic increase of the aircraft C2 link immunity;
• the acquisition of an increased innovative potential for the European defence industry in the technological field of airborne laser communications.

Information superiority is a critical capability to be developed and improved with the aim to address future challenges to be faced by European defence forces, and more specifically to support reactive and efficient decision-making processes. To this purpose, an effective and robust EU military Intelligence, Surveillance, Target, Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability for missions and operations is an essential element of the overall EU effort to facilitate international conflict prevention and crisis management. Moreover, an ISTAR capability could support border and maritime surveillance tasks as well. Acquiring this capability necessitates the drastic improvement of Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and CIS operational capabilities, notably with regard to persistence, acquisition of high-quality and high volume of data, automatic airborne processing and dissemination of information to relevant stakeholders.

Against this background, the unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and in particular the Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS), are key for ISTAR missions. An unmanned platform is also able to establish a central/relay node, collecting tactical communications of friend forces in the nearby and relaying to C5ISR centre.

The ISTAR mission of the UAS include EO/IR, radar and signal intelligence sensors, as well as generation of geo-intelligence data. To accomplish these tasks, one of the most critical elements of the UAS aircraft architectural configuration lays in its telecommunications subsystem. In addition, communications play a more important role in the operation of unmanned aircraft than they do in manned ones, since all the decision-making occurs on the ground. The subsystem functionalities must thus provide both command and control instructions (C2 datalink) and relay collected ISR data (ISR data link) by the use of Radio line-of-sight (RLOS) and /or beyond radio line-of-sight (BRLOS).

However, all communications with the ground control station are usually performed via satellite links, which have bandwidth limitations. Therefore, enhanced telecommunication links are required, providing higher wideband characteristics, as well as efficient means of electronic and cyber defence properties against detection, acquisition, jamming and cyber-attacks. Otherwise, loss of the aircraft own control, compromise of the information collected and in the worst-case total control of the aircraft by the adversary may occur. Moreover, the overwhelming demand for data communications with ever increasing data rate, has drastically reduced the availability of RF transmission bandwidth, converting it to a valuable resource. Although hundreds of deployed satellites practically provide global Ku band coverage, the overall congestion of the Ku band causes problems in particular with regard to unmanned aircraft operations. In parallel, timely transmission of voluminous ISR sensor data is often not possible within the available RF channels capacity limitations.

Optical links have already proven their suitability for satellite to mobile platforms applications, by providing orders of magnitude faster transmission, while using much less power than traditional RF links to aircrafts, ships, and even other satellites. The future utilisation of optical data links for Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) operations of UAS can simultaneously combine all capabilities of high data rate, unlimited bandwidth, low probability of detection (LPD) and low probability of intercept (LPI) communications and integration to network centric architectures. For high bandwidth transmission and to gain an additional communication link, a laser communication between UAS and satellite terminals could be installed. This idea of airborne optical wideband communication via satellite, immune to eavesdropping and jamming, constitutes the general objective of this topic.

Specific objective

The specific objective of this topic is the development of an Airborne Laser Communication System (ALCoS), able to establish a very high data rate bi-directional communication link to satellite, providing BLOS communication capability with LPD and LPI characteristics.

The proposals must address activities to design a prototype for airborne laser communication system (ALCoS) to be used on various types of aircraft, manned or unmanned (e.g. envisioned European MALE RPAS).

In detail, the proposals must address:

• an overview about a suitable configuration for airborne laser communication including all parts of the communication chain (RPAS terminal, satellite terminal, satellite orbit position, inter-satellite communication, downlink);
• identification, analysis and mitigation of critical technical risks especially those relating to integration and certification;
• definition of a set of requirements, considering the whole product cycle;
• life cycle cost analysis and management;
• developing of a prototype to demonstrate the possible airborne integration.

Types of activities

The following table lists the types of activities which are eligible for this topic, and whether they are mandatory or optional (see Article 10(3) EDF Regulation):

The proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of the mandatory activities:

• Studies:
  • identify which configurations to be used in the design. As outcome, a set of requirements must be assessed and jointly agreed by supporting Member States and EDF associated countries (Norway);
  • provide influences and limitation of weather and atmospheric conditions on laser communications and possible countermeasures;
  • execute risk management for the development of airborne laser communications, including all parts of the communication line, especially for integration, certification and qualification issues;
  • provide drawings, reports, analyses, certification plan and data in view of the future certification of the system by the authorities concerned.
• Design:
  • provide a set of requirements, to be assessed and jointly agreed by the supporting Member States and EDF associated countries (Norway);
  • design a flight test campaign to ensure airspace integration and the future certification;
  • design a system prototype in view of a serial system complying with the qualification standards usually applied in this domain (e.g. RTCA/EUROCAE, DO-254, DO-178 and DO-160)
• System prototyping:
  • a system prototype must be produced to enable concrete testing in live environment.
• Testing:
  • the performances of the system prototype according to the functional requirements, as well as certification and qualification potential issues as identified in the certification plan, must be evaluated through a consistent test campaign, including through a flight test campaign if possible.

In addition, the proposals must substantiate synergies and complementarity with ongoing multilateral European programmes and activities in the field of laser communications (e.g. EDRS).

Moreover:

• projects addressing activities referred to in point (d) above must be based on harmonised defence capability requirements jointly agreed by at least two Member States or EDF associated countries (or, if studies within the meaning of point (c) are still needed to define the requirements, at least on the joint intent to agree on them)
• projects addressing activities referred to in points (e) to (h) above, must be:
  • supported by at least two Member States or EDF associated countries that intend to procure the final product or use the technology in a coordinated manner, including through joint procurement

and

• • based on common technical specifications jointly agreed by the Member States or EDF associated countries that are to co-finance the action or that intend to jointly procure the final product or to jointly use the technology (or, if design within the meaning of point (d) is still needed to define the specifications, at least on the joint intent to agree on them).

Functional requirements

The proposed product and technologies should meet the following functional requirements:

• obtain higher reception power and signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver side, as compared to RF, enabling faster bi-directional communications with lower bit-error-rates and high data rate in the order of Gbps;
• achieve reliable airborne laser telecommunications within 2 seconds for establishing the link with the satellite;
• use same interfaces as for RF communications;
• include beam-steering for precision pointing and tracking of the satellite (LEO, MEO and GEO), compensate vibrations or resist to vibrations;
• provide power consumption and heat dissipation that can be supported by the aircraft;
• perform signal transmission which does not risk inflicting any danger, while being resistant to blinding and dazzling;
• establish a laser communication link under influence of challenging atmospheric (e.g. magnetic anomalies) and light weather conditions (e.g. partly cloudy conditions);
• be designed to be integrated into various aircraft (e.g. fixed-wing medium/high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, fixed-wing governmental multi-role aircraft), with enhanced SWaP-C.