US battle labs work with DARPA to evolve new ASTARTE C2 capability

The USAF’s Shadow Operations Center-Nellis (ShOC-N) has worked with partners to evolve a new joint airspace management and joint fires capability at Nellis AFB, Nevada. 

Working with the US Army Mission Command Battle Lab and DARPA, ShOC-N hosted a joint experiment on the Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE).

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As the USAF's main C2 battle lab, ShOC-N supports development, advancement and maturation of technologies and capabilities.

The DARPA-led ASTARTE, with army and air force sponsorship, is designed to enable effective airspace operations and deconfliction in a congested battlespace. 

The system automates the ability to provide a real-time common operational picture of airspace in and above an army division to reduce the time required to execute time-sensitive joint fires. 

Raytheon developed AI-enabled software to support airspace synchronisation and tactical decision-making using a modular approach so the functionality can plug into existing C2 systems.

In the experiment army and air force personnel simulated a division-level Joint Air Ground Integration Center to evaluate ASTARTE software in an air-ground conflict. This used both live data from the Red Flag exercise and simulated data produced by ShOC-N. 

'In comparison to previous test events, we observed significantly reduced reliance on legacy C2 systems while using the ASTARTE software, and the role-players reported a greater understanding of how the ASTARTE system executes tasks,' commented Dr Mary Schurgot, ASTARTE programme manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office.