Information Systems Management concept for military aircraft in combat operations

In the 100 years since the first successful heavier than air powered flight, aircraft specifically designed for military applications have proliferated in two overlapping phases. The first phase could be considered the development and evolution of aircraft aerodynamic and power plant performance; basically the ability of an aircraft to fly higher, faster and be more maneuverable. As this first phase reached a plateau in the last 30 years, the second phase, development of on-board systems, (i.e. radar, FLIR, sensors, countermeasures, etc.), rose to the forefront of aircraft evolution. This second phase enabled aircraft with dated performance characteristics to gain the advantage in a combat scenario due to its superior ability to detect military targets of interest or remain undetected itself. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the next phase in military aircraft evolution: the integration of military aviation assets via data links to accomplish a network-centric plan for sharing and passing critical information between aircraft and ground stations. This thesis proposes an Information Systems Management concept for military aircraft to ensure that aircraft conducting specific missions maximize their effectiveness by receiving or transmitting the appropriate information focused towards the overall success of the military operation. Discussion begins with current and future military aviation mission requirements. Concepts are developed for connectivity and interface requirements to include human factors involved with aircrew to system interface as well as discussion of appropriate frequency spectrum and transmission bandwidth. Finally the acquisition strategy and program management requirements to enable such a concept to come to fruition are reviewed. Research for this concept is based on analyzing military mission requirements, review of current aircraft and systems capabilities, and projection of future mission requirements and technologies available.