Rockwell Collins won an $18 million contract from the Air Force to complete development and qualification of the Tactical Targeting Network Technology waveform, paving the way its implementation on a broad range of aircraft, announced the company. “TTNT will provide warfighters with a higher throughput, low latency networking capability to meet the demands of new and evolving mission requirements,” said Bob Haag, Rockwell Collins’ general manager of communication and navigation products, in the company’s Dec. 17 release. That is something “the warfighter does not have today,” he added. TTNT is built to deliver high data rate, long-range communication links for airborne platforms as a complement to existing tactical data link networks, according to the release. The Pentagon has demonstrated TTNT on aircraft including the B-2, B-52, E-2C Hawkeye, E-3 AWACS, F-16, F/A-18, and F-22. (See also Raptors Test Networking, Air and Ground.)
The first flight of the secretive B-21 bomber has slipped to mid-2022, but the program is moving along well, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director Randall Walden said in an exclusive interview. The second copy of the B-21, which will be used for structural testing, is now on the production…