Draken Europe, Collins Aerospace collaborate on JSAS air combat training system

UK-based contract air services group Draken Europe has signed an agreement with Raytheon subsidiary Collins Aerospace to introduce the latter's Joint Secure Air Combat Training System (JSAS) for use with Draken's fleet of Falcon 20 aircraft.

Borne out of Draken International's acquisition of Cobham Aviation Services in September 2020, Draken Europe provides operational readiness training for the UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy using 15 specially adapted Falcon 20 business jets. It also delivers electronic warfare training to NATO, US Air Force Europe, and the Royal Saudi Air Force.

JSAS is described as a next-generation system for secure Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC)-capable high fidelity air combat test and training. The implementation comprises aircraft-mounted JSAS pods plus a ground station, built in co-operation with Leonardo DRS, to afford high capacity, low latency, and multihop mesh networking using a software-defined radio hosting multiple waveforms.

As part of Draken Europe's current operational readiness training contract with the UK Ministry of Defence, JSAS pods are to enable near real-time combat training information to be viewed at the aircraft base, and be ready for de-brief immediately after landing. This interoperability is made possible, said Collins Aerospace, by multiple independent levels of security architecture that protect classified data while it is shared across platforms with the same security levels.

The pods themselves are based on the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System, used by the US Air Force and US Navy. These will be cleared for flight on the Falcon 20 aircraft, with first trials to be performed by the end of 2021.