By Anne Wiskerchen

Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines accuracy as "freedom from mistake or error." And, while many might think of accuracy as a condition or quality of being correct or exact, it is a word defined much more personally by soldiers around the world.

For those individuals, accuracy can mean the difference between life and death – not only for them, but also for their fellow service men and women, and the civilians they are trying to protect.

Constantly surrounding themselves with the most accurate products possible – such as a new Rockwell Collins product line designed to increase soldiers' situational awareness – is one way these men and women can attempt to ensure their own safety and also the safety of those around them.

Covering all the bases

Photo courtesy of Phil Froom, Reading, England
Equipment evaluation — Warrant Officer Mark Roberts (far right) of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Joint Air Land Organization works with colleagues Rob Linham (far left) and Tony Souness to evaluate a new system created and deployed by Rockwell Collins engineers in about five months.

Since the mid-1940s, United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (UK MoD) soldiers known as forward air controllers (FACs) have been using some form of navigational resources – compasses, binoculars and maps – to identify their targets.

However, even with today's advances in technology, which include use of a laser range finder and new mapping software, there remains one problem with which military services still struggle — accuracy.

"A compass has never been stunningly accurate in the field because it is highly sensitive to magnetic anomaly," said Phil Froom, manager of military sales at Rockwell Collins in Reading, England.

Likewise, the digital magnetic compass (DMC) used in the laser range finder (LRF) to derive the azimuth, or position, suffers in a very similar way.

"If a soldier using an LRF is close to an armored vehicle, or his rifle, ammunition, or other large metallic object, the azimuth that the compass reports can often be highly inaccurate," said Froom.

If that azimuth is off even by a few meters, the chance of dropping unguided or even guided munitions on friends or civilians increases dramatically. That is not something FACs – those who direct the military aircraft engaged in close air support of land forces – want to be responsible for.

"Being able to accurately communicate the location of your target is crucial," said Warrant Officer Mark Roberts of the UK MoD Joint Air Land Organization. "Reducing the margin of error also means reducing the risk of fratricide."

In an effort to solve this problem, Rockwell Collins engineers in Reading have been working closely with British FACs and Forward Observation Officers (FOOs) to create a complete system that not only increases soldiers' situational awareness, but also obtains extremely accurate target locations.

Photo by Sophie Laslett, London, England
Aggressive timeline — Rockwell Collins employees Martin Mills (left), Dan Stennett and Helen Alexander were among the team of employees charged with supplying the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence with a system to enhance soldiers' situational awareness and target accuracy.

The new system uses two GPS receivers and antennas, and a suite of advanced software to accurately derive the target.

This new system, which has yet to receive an official name, combines some of our company's operationally proven legacy systems such as our Rosetta Joint Fires (RJF) targeting software, which is currently used by the U.S. Air Force's Tactical Air Control Party Modernization (TACP-M).

It also uses our highly successful Defense Advanced Global Positioning System Receivers (DAGR), with improved mapping systems. In addition, the system provides a much smaller and lighter video downlink receiver, which can receive targeting video from aircraft targeting pods or unmanned aerial vehicles.

"The combination of these technologies covers all the bases," said Wayne Bull, requirements manager for the UK MoD Defence Equipment and Services organization (DE&S). "It gives FACs the advantage of targeting based on a physical location that would be listed on a map or use of the range finder to identify the coordinates."

Real-world collaboration

Putting this new system together, however, wasn't easy. According to Froom, the day our company tested the first iteration of our system for the UK MoD, the deployed system could best be described as sort of a "Heath Robinson Affair."

"We took a mishmash of GPS receivers, antennas, laptop computers, cables and displays to a military bombing range in England," recalled Froom. "It didn't look pretty, but we all felt strongly that this particular combination of technologies would work."

And work they did. In fact, the technologies exceeded everyone's expectations.

"Each time we were asked to measure a target, we were spot-on," said Froom.

Immediately following the demonstration, the MoD wanted to purchase our product. The only catch was they needed it immediately, and Maj. Gareth Davies did everything in his power to encourage our company to bring the system from concept to the field in a little more than one year.

"I believe we demonstrated a real-world model for collaboration," said Davies, admitting that meeting such an aggressive schedule required open, honest and frank discussions between both parties. "When we'd come back from our missions and give Rockwell Collins our feedback, we felt as though we were one team."

According to Martin Mills, lead systems engineer on the program, the challenges of keeping up with Davies' aggressive schedule made things rather interesting.

"Timelines were a real struggle, and the whole team put in a lot of late nights, but we all wanted to see the system succeed," recalled Mills. "We all got a little stressed at times, but we look back now and can honestly say this was a massive team effort."

Striving for perfection

After receiving the request in March 2007, Rockwell Collins supplied the MoD with an initial 100 systems just five months later. A couple of tweaks later, our system had been deployed to troops in Afghanistan, where it currently is being used to conduct live, close-air support and artillery fire missions to protect coalition troops in the area.

In addition to enhanced accuracy, our system also has improved in terms of size and weight. Soldiers who used to carry a 120-pound system for a three-day mission now carry a 40-pound system.

"It's truly a mobile system now," said Davies. "Our soldiers are no longer stuck in the rear or on a fixed base. We're now able to deliver an attack exactly where it needs to happen."

This sort of feedback, indicating that our employees' hard work is paying off, is exactly what those in our Reading facility want to hear.

"This stuff is not standing in a corner collecting dust; it's out there saving lives," said Froom. "Everyone said, 'we can't do this,' but we've positively proven we can. Now this means we can do the same for others."