Link 16: Attributes Include a Very Good 'RuleBook'

An important benefit of a Link 16 system is that its inherent robustness lets commanders build up the resiliency of their tactical networks as part of their Primary Alternate Contingency Emergency (PACE) communications plan for operating in a contested RF environment—something the DoD expects to be the norm.

A Link 16 system is also known for its functional and sturdy design. Link 16 isn’t just a transport layer, it also includes a message set and established business rules for the execution of real-time warfare.

This requires Link 16 units to have situational awareness, transactions for command and control, target designation, and assignment and engagement designations.

Analysts claim Link 16 is also guided by a very good “rule book.” This rule book makes it clear how military personnel communicate when someone gives them an order and how they acknowledge it.

This rule book was originally created during the Cold War, while much of it describes and supports air-war operations, there is also a surface and ground war component.

The Air Force and Navy were the original adopters of Link 16, so traditionally there was more employment for air-to-air and surface-to-air missions, particularly from the Navy’s standpoint. Much of the U.S. military’s focus for Link 16 has traditionally been for units tasked with air superiority and battle group-centric operations for the Navy connecting multiple surface ships and an aircraft carrier’s air wing.

But the Link 16 rule book also has ground operational material, such as repromulgation relay, which has been described as an almost MANET-style implementation that’s available in Link 16 that has not previously been used because there weren’t a lot of ground units needing that capability.

Above all else, Link 16 is designed for real-time warfare and designed to deliver actionable information to warfighting entities to make operational decisions based upon the situational awareness it provides as well as its utility as a command and control link.?

?Link 16 isn’t designed for high bandwidth video streaming. Even though the system uses a relatively wide swath of the frequency spectrum, it trades data rate for robustness.

Experts in this area say this was an intentional tradeoff.

Want to learn more? Tonex offers Overview of Link 16 System Architecture, a 3-day course where participants learn about Link 16 and Link 16 data and how it is transmitted via Link 16 terminals with multiple type of platforms with different architecture including JTIDS, MIDS LVT and MIDS JTRS (using SDR).

You will also learn how Link 16 terminals are used by aircraft, surface ships, ground vehicles, missile defense systems, networked enabled weapons, and command and control networks.

This course is especially designed for electronic warfare, avionics systems engineers, system architects, hardware and software engineers, and employees with little or no Link 16 experience. The course is also useful for those who have experience with Link 16 but have never had any formal training on Link 16 system architecture.

For more information, questions, comments, contact us.