Link 16 Connectivity on French AWACS E-3F Aircraft

France’s General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) has announced that the Air Force’s E-3F AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft will soon get Link 16 connectivity.

On September 22, the French defense ministry announced the qualification of the integration of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System Low Volume Terminal Block Upgrade 2 (MIDS LVT BU2) terminal on the E-3F aircraft of the Air and Space Force. This new terminal will allow the use of the new generation link 16 on carriers equipped from this autumn.

The four E-3F aircraft contribute to ensuring the missions of maintaining the permanent security posture in its air defense aspects and the missions of power projection and support for the engagement of forces in a joint and/or combined framework thanks to their capacity for projection, mobility and employment diversity.

This qualification comes within the framework of the latest developments in the standard of link 16 (NATO stanag 5516 in its version applicable since January 1, 2022), tactical data link essential for the AWACS E-3F to fulfill its role as a command center and airborne control. This is a crucial step towards the upcoming entry into service of the capability, which will allow the French AWACS E-3F to be fully interoperable with the forces of the United States and NATO equipped with this new link standard 16 and new associated cryptography. This new standard will offer improved communication throughput, cryptographic upgrades and frequency plan redeployment.

Thales and Air France Industries were selected in 2020 to respectively develop and integrate the new MIDS LVT BU2 terminal on the Air Force and Space Force E-3F AWACS.

The work completes a phase of tests and expertise that required two years of work at the DGA, in conjunction with the Air and Space Force and the two industrial partners of the operation. During this phase, the DGA Information Control center of expertise and testing intervened to deal with the security aspect of information systems (ISS), the DGA Project Engineering center examined the authorization files for flight, authorization for temporary employment and qualification of the integration of MIDS BU2 on AWACS. Finally, several flights were carried out by the DGA Flight Test Center, enabling the integration and correct operation of the terminal to be checked.

The MIDS LVT terminal has been developed and improved for more than thirty years in cooperation between five nations (United States, France, Germany, Spain and Italy). The BU2 version is the latest version delivered as part of the program led by the MIDS International Program Office (IPO) in San Diego. The terminals are produced on two lines in the United States and one line in Europe (EuroMIDS).