Gripen: Tailored for the Future Network Centric Warfare
The ability to cooperate and communicate with other units during a mission is of crucial importance in today’s world of modern warfare, and this is something which Gripen excels in.
Episode 6 of True Collaboration Season 3 breaks down the basic workings of Gripen’s network centric capabilities and how it can benefit the pilot and the Air Force.
Gripen is built with the most developed and secure data links systems that provide the pilot with total situational awareness. Packed with state of the art sensors and active jammers, Gripen is able to see the unseen, defeat advanced threats, and help the pilot be in control at all times.
“The network centric capability is Gripen’s unique ability to assemble all the information it obtains from its sensors and present it in a clean and prioritized manner so that the pilot can act and make a decision as fast and efficient as possible,” says Brig Av Valter Borges Malta, President of COPAC- Brazilian Air Force.
Jonas Jakobsson, Test Pilot at Saab, explains the concept of network centric warfare by making a parallel to the internet. “It’s basically like flying inside the internet where you share and use everyone’s information. Adding all that information becomes better for me as a pilot,” he says.
As a true network centric fighter, Gripen was designed make interoperability with other fighters and units easier and more efficient. Within this network, a threat detected by one of the members will not go unnoticed. The pilot, who is able to see everything that is happening around him through shared data and information, is able to make calculated decisions in a short period of time. This helps the pilot to focus more on the mission.
“It's like a puzzle. You add all the pieces together till you can make out what the big picture is,” says Jonas. “Since we're all working in the same network, with the army and the navy, we can cooperate in really close loops in time,” he adds.