THE HUB OF AIR DEFENCE

[Michael Grove]

  Project Linesman was one of the main reasons why West Drayton became

  the site of the UK Air Traffic Control Centre. Linesman was designed to be

  the hub of the Air Defence Environment. The Initial Concept was formulated

  in the 1950s at the height of the Cold war and was for threat assessment and

  communication that could launch retaliation against a nuclear attack from  

  the USSR.

  Linesman would collate data from the East Coast of England and 

  Continental radars via telephone lines and pass on the information to

  Air Defence Chiefs at West Drayton and strategic bomber stations.

  The Vulnerability of L1 to air attack was recognised and second

  underground site L2 was planned, but never built. As the system 

  requirement evolved, along with computing methodology, so costs and

  timescales escalated. In an attempt to control these, the then Labour

  Government took the decision in 1962 to combine the civil and military

  control sites and a prototype system was installed in building 123 in 1963.

  It was at this time that The Eurocontrol Convention was convened, signed

  and subsequently ratified as that which became the European Organisation

  for the Safety of Air Navigation. Buildings including 123 were completed

  in 1965 and in 1969 contracts were awarded to Plessey for military radar

  data processing and to Marconi for a display system and civil flight data

  processing. RAF controllers and their equipment were to be housed in L1

  with the civil complex in the adjoining LATCC. Thankfully Linesman was

  never used in anger, but it did provide a service for exercises and training

  fighter controllers, and was utilised for the purpose of my own training as 

  a Joint Civil/Military Area Radar Controller  at RAF Sopley Radar and

  London Radar on the North Side of Heathrow Airport adjacent to runway

  28 Right/10 Left. 

  Sopley area of responsibility as an upper air space  ATC unit




  The first Civil Flight Data Processing system installed in LATCC in 1967 was

  based on a Ferranti HERMES computer. The software contained representations

  of the airway and link structure, reporting points, wind data and Heathrow

  runway in use - all on a storage capacity of only  8k of 24 bit words, later

  upgraded to 32k. Operational support was provided  by offline bureau and

  program development test computers. This system, referred to as MEDIATOR,

  provide procedural flight control for the first LATCC ATCOs as Stage 1/2 of the

  FDP project that would eventually lead to all civil ATC for England and Wales

  [BE]ing located at West Drayton.

 

  All MEDIATOR input was made by ATSAs at teletypewriters in the Data

  Extraction cell, who got their information from teleprinter tapes or

  telephones. Output from MEDIATOR was in the form of flight strips that were

  printed at a central location, machine-loaded into holders and distributed to

  sector controllers by ATSAs. The HERMES computers remained in service until

  1976 when they were eventually replaced by the 9020D complex.

  Southern Radar from Sopley  moved to West Drayton in 1974, followed by

  Western Radar from Aberporth. By now both civilian and military air traffic 

  levels were increasing and, in order to improve safe and efficient use of the

  South East air space , SEJAO was inaugurated with military and civil ATCOs

  working side by side in the newly commissioned CASOR. Fairly rapidly over

  the next few years the number of SEJAO sectors expanded from four to eight

  and the title changed to LIAO. When the Linesman system became operational

  the first people to use it were the School of Fighter Control, who moved from

  RAF Bawdsey in 1974. Then in 1975, the ADGE Examining Board 9 ...

  "the dreaded Trappers" moved in from Bentley Priory. Both these lodgers

  stayed until 1990.

  During the operational lifetime of LATCC, that is from taking control of the

  UK Civil Air Traffic from SCATCC until TC took executive control at Swanick,   

  it handled a total of 48,206,332 movements, ALL of THIS with NO ATC

  attributable ACCIDENT! • a very remarkable achievement that is a fitting

  tribute to all who had worked at West Drayton over the years.

  As [IS] in[DEED] often the case, one era closes and yet another unfolds, which

  in the case of Global Air Traffic Control, is NOW been assisted by the advent

  of that which is referred to as GNSS.

 

 

 TRUTH is the daughter of TIME • NOT of AUTHORITY

 

                                                                                                                 

 [IS] there ANY WONDER, subsequent to my brief meeting

 with Don Beck therefore, that he first published his

 proposal in KOSMOS Journal for "Imagining a global

 Intelligence that, much like a metaphoric ‘air traffic control’

 system, can keep up with and direct our many life forms

 which are dispersed in different altitudes, moving in  

 different directions, at different speeds, with different

 capacities, and all with multiple bottom lines and priorities.

 Why not design and build this capacity, now?

Our very lives, individually & collectively,
MIGHT WELL DEPEND ON [IT]".

[Michael Grove]

"Uncle Sam wants you” instructed posters plastered across the US during the First World War. Now, the Western world is fighting a war that exists largely in the digital realm, and it's Silicon Valley giants that are the latest recruits to be drafted in by the top brass.

It's an awkward pairing for an industry known for its largely liberal political stance. “Battles and wars have been won or lost based upon either bad, no or late information,” Brigadier General David Krumm declared at industry conference on the US military’s cloud computing infrastructure held in Virginia earlier this year. 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is believed to be the favourite

to win the JEDI contract, is unapologetic about his involvement. 

“One of the jobs of a senior leadership team is to make the right

decision even when it is unpopular,” he told an audience in San

Francisco earlier this month. “This is a great country – it needs to

be defended.”

Google isn't as firm in its resolve. The company pulled out of the running for JEDI just ahead of the deadline, citing ethical concerns following pressure from staff. It also attempted to appease concerns by releasing principles for use of its artificial intelligence tools. That's not to say, however, that similar military deals are now off the table for Google. CEO Sundar Pichai last week made it clear that employee politics did not impact its decisions. “Throughout Google’s history we have given our employees a lot of voice and say but we don’t run the company by holding referendums [sic],” he said when quizzed at Wired magazine’s 25th birthday party in San Francisco. 

Pichai added that Google hoped to “work with the military many times” because ultimately Google cherishes its values “but we can enjoy that because of the way our country is defended”. Pichai’s patriotism may have had something to do with Bezos’ comments hours earlier. When asked to defend his stance on JEDI, he aimed shots at Google stating: “If big tech companies turn their back on the Department of Defense then this country is in trouble”.

Cynics accuse those turning their backs of sour grapes. Many of the big names eyeing up the JEDI contract are suspicious that the Department of Defense has just one contender in mind: Amazon. The application information is strict on certain certifications that only Amazon could currently fulfill, rivals claim. 

Within days of Google pulling out for “ethical reasons”, IBM and Oracle both launched public protests over the tendering process accusing the military of moving the goalposts, stifling competition and, the strongest allegation of all, putting people’s lives at risk.

Sam Gordy, IBM’s military contract chief wrote in a blog post:    

“No business in the world would build a cloud the way JEDI would and then lock in to it for a decade. JEDI turns its back on the preferences of Congress and the administration, is a bad use of taxpayer dollars and was written with just one company in mind. America’s warfighters deserve better”.

Microsoft has submitted a bid despite an open letter anonymously signed by people claiming to be employees. But what is strange about JEDI is the objections to the deal were made to it without anyone knowing exactly the contract would entail. So what does the government intend to do with it?

 

 

[Michael Grove]

The latest air-to-air missiles in the RAF's armoury have been flown operationally for the first time. The MoD has confirmed that in response to an incident last Wednesday, RAF Typhoon jets equipped with the new Meteor missile launched in defence of UK airspace. RAF Typhoons maintain a constant state of readiness to defend the sovereignty of British skies. Quick Reaction Alert jets based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland are regularly  scrambled to deter Russian aircraft approaching UK airspace over the North Sea.

The exact nature of last week's incident remained classified.

The introduction of Meteor represents the culmination of many years of research, development and testing to bring the advanced weapon into service on front-line aircraft.

The Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, said: “This latest missile system demonstrates the next chapter of the Typhoon which will see the jet evolve its ability to target and destroy any airborne threat at great distances.

“The Meteor missile will provide an unrelenting deterrence to those who wish harm upon the UK and our Armed Forces. The RAF’s prized Typhoon Force is unquestionably now the cornerstone of British and Nato military power. It has proved itself in combat roles over Libya, Iraq and Syria, protecting UK skies and overseas territories, and providing critical support to our NATO Allies in Eastern Europe.”

Meteor can fly in any weather condition at over four times the speed of sound. It has been designed to defeat all current and known future threats, including combat aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles or missiles. The range of the weapon is classified, but it will eventually operate from the F-35 Lightning stealth jet.

The missile - weighing 185kgs and measuring 3.7m long - uses an air-breathing ramjet to boost the weapon away from the launch aircraft. It then remains under power until warhead detonation, giving the missile the energy to pursue and destroy the fastest and most agile aircraft. The warhead carries impact and proximity fuses so targets can be destroyed even if the missile does not score a direct hit.

The pilot flying the first Meteor equipped Typhoon said: “The responsibility of flying such a capable platform, armed with this formidable weapon is immense, but the options this gives us in responding to an emergency situation cannot be understated.”

Meteor has been developed by a six-nation European partnership led by the UK. It is built and manufactured by MBDA in Stevenage and has created 430 jobs across the country. The Meteor programme partners include the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden.

[Michael Grove]

Based at RAF Brampton, Cambridgeshire, from 1957 to 2013, JARIC was the UK's national strategic imagery intelligence provider. In the immediate postwar years one of its major tasks was the plotting and analysis of captured German Air Force reconnaissance photography. What had not been destroyed, or captured by the Soviets, was discovered in several locations by the Allies and shipped back to the UK. The joint UK/US work on this imagery provided unique intelligence on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the early Cold War years before the advent of satellite imagery.

[Michael Grove]

  The real threat to global peace is developing in the Indian sub-con...

   

Even as Donald Trump arrived in Vietnam for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about his nuclear programme, a far greater threat to global peace was developing in the Indian sub-continent.

Two week ago, a murderous terrorist attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants based in Pakistani-run Kashmir killed 40 Indian troops. The Indians responded by bombing the JeM training camp, risking a clash with the Pakistani air force which was scrambled in response. The strikes are the first launched across the line of control since the 1971 war.

Kashmir has long been a flash point between the two nuclear powers but the bellicose rhetoric attached to the latest stand-off is especially worrying. In India, the BJP government of Narendra Modi has been under pressure from its Hindu nationalist supporters to hit back and, with an election due by May, does not want to appear weak. This is being replicated in Pakistan, which has promised to retaliate “at a time and place of its choosing”. Once such a pledge has been made it would be hard for the relatively new prime minister Imran Khan not to follow it through.

If Pakistan is offering a safe haven to JeM then they should dismantle the camps and ensure this is done in a verifiable way. Equally, however, it is reckless of the BJP to use the prospect of Indian elections to continue actions that can only invite a response from Islamabad.

Western leaders preoccupied with other matters should take some time off to consider the geopolitics of the sub-continent and see if their good offices can reduce tensions and help avert what risks becoming a calamitous conflict.

[Michael Grove]

Defence

Unmanned weapons of war have been in development since World War I and the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, and several experiments in World War II were performed with remote-controlled bombing runs.

But while the concept may not be new to the battlefield, the growing sophistication of drones coupled with their falling cost and the ease with which the technology can be acquired  has changed warfare. 

The military drone market alone is set to be worth $13bn by 2024, driven by government defence spending.

The US alone forked out $4.5bn on its drone programme in 2017, with American companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing making up 60pc of the military market. India and Korea are investing billions of dollars too.

The UK is exploring the possibilities of swarms of smaller drones, as well as the forthcoming, laser-armed RAF Protector. It isn’t just UAVs either, with autonomous boats set to patrol the seas such as BAE Systems P950 Rib.

But whilst the military powers of the world are always looking for any advantage, using drones for tasks such as reconnaissance to targeted strikes, incidents like the Saudi attack show that it is the accessibility of unmanned vehicles that is changing the face of 'asymmetric' warfare. 

[Michael Grove]

     National Drone ATC/Flight Information System Deployed

     in Switzerland

     Skyguide, the Swiss air navigation service provider, and AirMap,

     a global airspace intelligence platform for drones, in partnership

     with the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), have

     announced that they have deployed the Swiss U-space flight

     information management system for drones, referred to as the FIMS

     The FIMS is an aviation data exchange hub that connects skyguide’s

     air traffic management system to UAS (unmanned aerial systems)

     Service providers (USPs) with open interfaces to support safe and

     compliant drone operations in low-altitude airspace. The FIMS

     deployment represents a critical milestone in the development

     of the Swiss U-space Implementation (SUSI) program, Switzerland’s

     drone traffic management network infrastructure.

     U-space complements traditional air traffic management (ATM)

     systems by facilitating information exchange and interactions

     between airspace authorities and drone operators. As part of

     U-space, the FIMS is a cloud- based, interoperable platform that

     distributes airspace information, directives and real-time traffic

     from skyguide’s ATM system to drone operators through a network

     of USPs.

[Michael Grove]

    The UK is one of very few countries around the world with a joint

    and integrated civil and military air traffic control service and

    this close relationship allows for greater cooperation and the more

    flexible use of airspace. The operational requirements of modern

    military aircraft can be better accommodated with flexible airspace.

    Flexibility is also  key if aviation is to be as efficient and sustainable

    as possible, especially as the skies are becoming busier year on year,

    but this is only achievable through the close working that this

    contract enables.

    Environmental benefits can be gained if civil aircraft don’t have

    to avoid military airspace – more direct flights will use less fuel,

    resulting in lower emission levels.

[Michael Grove]

Airbus has dropped into the red with a €1.36 billion loss as it counted the cost of paying fines for a decade of global multibillion-dollar bribery and corruption scandals and the financial black hole of its A400M military transporter.

The 2019 losses at the European commercial aircraft, military and satellite giant came with news that it had taken greater control of the new A220 aircraft, which it is acquiring from Bombardier, the troubled Canadian group, but will slow the build rates of one of the A330, its long-haul aircraft.

Robert Lea - Industrial Editor THE TIMES Business

[Michael Grove]

It is now more than eighty years since radar began in Britain. 

In the intervening years, airborne radar has become one of the

most important branches of civilian and military radar.

In "Radar Days", the father of airborne radar, Dr. Taffy Bowen

recounts his personal story of how the first airborne radars were

built and brought into use in the Royal Air Force, and of the

Tizard mission to the USA in 1940, of which he was a member.

Written from the point of view of the individuals who worked at

the laboratory bench, the story begins with the building of the

first ground air-warning radar at Orfordness in June 1935. The

book proceeds to describe how this equipment was miniaturized

to make it suitable for use in aircraft and the lengthy, sometimes

hazardous flight trials conducted before radar went into service

with the RAF. The author also details the activities of the Tizard

mission, which was instrumental in installing the first airborne

radars in US aircraft. The greatest achievement of the mission

was to pass on the secret of the resonant magnetron to the US

only a few months after its invention at Birmingham University.

This was the device that brought about a revolution in Allied

radar, putting it far ahead of the corresponding German

technology for the remainder of the war.