A-10 radio upgrades limited to deployed aircraft

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Natasha L. Waggoner
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) --  Two hundred and ninety four of the Air Force's 356 A-10's will go without radio upgrades critical to their role in Iraq and Afghanistan because Air Combat Command, the lead funding agency, is short funds.

Approximately $60 million is needed to install and upgrade the AN/ARC-210 digital radios in the A-10 to ensure it continues to provide immediate, responsive and persistent attack in direct support of friendly forces.

"The Air Force has relied on the A-10 for over 30 years to provide unmatched capabilities in the close fight," said Maj. T. C. Coiner, A/OA-10 Realistic Training Manager here. "Ground commanders from all branches of the military and our coalition partners call on the A-10 first when their forces come under enemy fire."

Just like many legacy systems in the Air Force, the A-10 enhancement and modernization programs are experiencing funding cuts and delays, said Major Coiner. These shortfalls in supporting previously funded programs means serious impacts to expected operational capabilities, which also affects pilot continuation and conversion training.

The AN/ARC-210 is digitally reliable and software programmable, enabling instantaneous secure synchronization with external users. It initially replaces line-of-sight UHF/VHF, contains upgradeable features such as beyond-line-of-sight, supports interoperability with numerous other platforms using ARC-210, and it fulfills the 8.33 MHz frequency separation requirement for Europe.

"Clearly these radios are needed to enhance current operations, but the rest of the fleet needs radios to be able to train like they fight, be responsive to air support requests and lower the risk of fratricide or other incidents," said Major Don Henry, ACC A-10 Program Element Monitor here.

Instead, the command rotates its 51 radios among aircraft in the Afghanistan and Iraq Areas of Responsibility including spares and uses another 12 for test jets and for training at the weapons school.

"This rotatable pool of radios we have now is okay, but with all the wear and tear due to frequently moving them from jet to jet, their lives are shortened," said Major Henry. "In a few years, we'll need more radios to replace the 63 we already have, or we can just go ahead and buy enough for all 356 jets and reduce the wear and tear of what we have now."

The current radios the A-10's use work well in non-secure mode, but the current means used for secure capability is aging and is unreliable during extended use. The older technology also creates a high risk to ground support operations that require rapid synchronization during secure communication.

In the three to five seconds that it takes to synchronize secure radios between a transmitting and receiving war fighter, critical links of the "kill chain" must come together. The pilot must gain proper parameters to release a weapon, receives final clearance from a controller and ensures friendly forces are out of harm's way while providing expeditious targeting of hostile forces, according to Major Henry. The extra synchronization time also means the pilot remains exposed to air and ground threats that affect the war fighter's ability to ensure friendly forces are out of harm's way.

"Without clearance to release during this critical window of time, intended kinetic impact points may get positively identified, but the pilot must repeat the attack and be exposed to the threat again -- and possibly miss an opportunity if the pilot does not regain positive identification on a fleeting target," said Major Henry.