Northrop Grumman has completed a series of flight tests demonstrating the first production Smart Node Pod for the U.S. Air Force.
Northrop Grumman has completed a series of flight tests demonstrating the first production Smart Node Pod for the U.S. Air Force.
Smart Node Pod is an aircraft-mounted airborne communications system that allows real-time information to be exchanged among many disparate military and commercial radios and different datalinks, extends the network to the forward edge of the battlefield and relays full-motion video.
Northrop Grumman conducted five flights to certify performance characteristics in February in Virginia Beach, Valencia. During the flights, the Smart Node Pod demonstrated the ability to transmit full-motion video, imagery, voice and digital messages between warfighters both in the air and on the ground via various waveforms and datalinks and its interoperability with the proprietary and open source forward tactical handheld devices.
Smart Node Pod is based on BACN technology Northrop Grumman developed for the USAF.
Northrop is under contract to produce Smart Node Pod systems for the US Air Force, with deliveries scheduled through mid-summer of this year.
Northrop is producing two different pod designs – a single-pod and a multipod architecture.
The pod can connect to the high-altitude Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) platforms, ground operational centers or other pods for beyond-line-of sight connectivity and provides access to high level intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data and command and control information.
