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US Air Force Addresses High Cost of NGAD, Link 16 Cryptographic Modernization Delay

While the unit flyaway cost of the Lockheed Martin F-22 was $155 million in today dollars and the unit flyaway cost of the company’s F-35A is running more than $85 million, the manned component of the U.S. Air Force’s classified Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program may be significantly higher.

While the unit flyaway cost of the Lockheed Martin F-22 was $155 million in today dollars and the unit flyaway cost of the company’s F-35A is running more than $85 million, the manned component of the U.S. Air Force’s classified Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program may be significantly higher.

“This is a number that’s going to get your attention, but we’re talking about prices that are multiple hundreds of millions of dollars for NGAD on an individual basis,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) in response to a question from Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) during an Apr. 27 budget hearing.

US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall testifies before a congressional subcommittee hearing on modernizing the US Air Force and Space Force. U.S. Air Force

Kendall also used the hearing to address a delay the Air Force is experiencing associated with an effort to field Link 16 cryptographic modernization for aircraft radios. Here, Avionics International provides coverage of Kendall's comments on the cost of NGAD and the Link 16 cryptographic modernization delay.

NGAD

NGAD is to replace the F-22 in the 2030s, but during the Apr. 27 hearing Norcross said that NGAD “is projected to come in much later than we originally had expected” and that such a schedule slippage could mean that the Air Force would have to delay retirement of the F-22 and pay higher sustainment costs or devise a workaround to address a gap between F-22 divestiture and the fielding of NGAD.

While Kendall said he could not discuss the exact NGAD fielding schedule during an open hearing, he said that initial NGAD capability is expected in “the early 2030s.”

The Air Force’s fiscal 2023 budget requests nearly $1.7 billion in research and development for NGAD. While the Air Force had relied on a “high-low” fighter mix for years, for example the Boeing F-15C and the Lockheed Martin F-16, the service has moved more to the high threshold, and Kendall has said that the Air Force will need to field a more affordable mix, including a significant complement of combat drones, to have a sufficient number of platforms in the service’s force structure.

NGAD and the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber are to be play callers for such drones under Kendall’s vision.

A conceptual drawing of the Air Force NGAD platform from the April 2021 U.S. Air Force U.S. Air Force

NGAD stemmed from the Aerospace Innovation Initiative, kicked off in 2015 by Kendall when he served as former President Obama’s DoD acquisition chief. Kendall said that the initiative led to a contract before the end of the Obama administration to investigate needed technologies for a sixth-generation fighter. Before the Aerospace Innovation Initiative, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) had spearheaded an Air Dominance Initiative–a two-year study, begun in 2013, on a “family of systems” approach that would tie together sensors, weapons and battle management for a future fighter.

The Air Force wants to use a number of drone research and development programs as feeders for a classified, service program to field combat drones by 2030.

Link 16 Cryptographic Modernization Delay

Kendall said that the service has devoted funding in the last few months to rectify a delay in fielding Link 16 cryptographic modernization for aircraft radios.

“One of the things I’m really concerned about is the Air Force’s Link 16 crypto modernization effort is behind,” Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Apr. 27 on the Air Force’s fiscal 2023 budget request. “It’s impacting readiness and safety. I’m not happy about this delay.”

Artist rendering of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, a next generation aircraft currently being developed by Northrop Grumman for the US Air Force.Northrop Grumman

DoD was to upgrade its platforms with encryption to meet National Security Agency (NSA) standards by Jan. 1, 2022.

In response to Langevin’s query on what the Air Force could do to resolve the delay and when the Link 16 crypto modernization for Air Force radios would finish, Kendall on Apr. 27 said that he would have to discuss most of the plans in closed session because of classification levels.

But Kendall did say that he became aware of the delay several months ago “and took steps immediately to put the resources on it that were necessary to get us where we need to be.”

“As we’ve gone through the last 20 years of being focused on counterterrorism/counterinsurgency campaigns where there wasn’t a sophisticated threat to our data links, that’s been neglected quite frankly so we have to put resources against it,” Kendall said. “We’re replacing radios so we have to buy the radios so there is some lead time associated with that, but it’s a problem we’re well aware of. That isn’t the only concern we have with Link 16. We have some others that go beyond that that I don’t want to talk about and can’t talk about in an open forum. We really need to get to a next generation of capabilities as well. That work is getting started.”

Langevin replied that he was “concerned that the can has been kicked down the road a lot” and that he “hoped that this is the end of that, and we can actually get this done.”

Data Link Solutions (DLS)–a joint venture between Collins Aerospace and BAE Systems–and Viasat Inc. have built the software-defined Multifunction Information Distribution System/Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS/JTRS), which is to replace older radios with NSA certified encryption and which is to feature a modular design to replace older MIDS-Low Volume Terminals (MIDS-LVTs).

The Naval Air Systems Command’s MIDS program office (PMA-101), headed by Navy Capt. Shaun Swartz, and the Air Force’s Tactical Data Link Operations and Management Organization, headed by Gary “Gus” Doody, at Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Va., did not respond to requests for elaboration on the Air Force Link 16 crypto delay.

Langevin’s office declined to discuss the delay in more detail, and Collins Aerospace and Viasat deferred any comment to program officials.

“MIDS LVT and MIDS JTRS are on 40 different platforms, with more than 50 countries participating,” Dominick Laccona, director of MIDS JTRS at BAE Systems, wrote in an Apr. 28 email. “DLS is nearing its 3,000th MIDS JTRS terminal delivery. Production on MIDS JTRS is at its highest level ever. These terminals are fielded and operational.”

“Design and development for the new and important crypto modernization mandate have been completed by DLS,” he wrote. “The new technology is being delivered with every terminal we produce.”

Two years ago, the MIDS program office reported that it had bought 4,823 MIDS-JTRS terminals, of which 2,319 had reached the field for a number of aircraft, including the F-15, the F-16, and the F-22.