Range Control Technology The digital backbone to Red Force
The Mission
Draken’s Red Force® ecosystem gives our customers access to a suite of multi-domain Integrated Adversary Services, with options to include Adversary Air, Electronic Warfare, Surface Threat and Stand-Off Weapon replications.
Phantom Sky® is the digital backbone to Red Force, bringing innovative Range Control Technology that provides everything you need for the integrated delivery of modern training, wherever and whenever you need it.
The Vision
1
Track, control, and communicate a network of threats
Phantom Sky terminals are installed in Exercise Control facilities and Squadron buildings where they bring the technology required to track, control and communicate with every asset in the training scenario, be it Live, Virtual or Constructive.
Using Phantom Sky, Exercise Control staff can remotely control and cue a dense network of threat emitters, uniquely positioned for the live training scenario across an unlimited geographic area.
2
Timely decision support, seamless kill administration
Phantom Sky acts as decision support for exercise or squadron staff, able to monitor every simulated weapon event and assess using sophisticated and embedded threat modelling software.
Threat emitters can be automated to cue on range, easing SAM-1s workload, and then killed with the press of a button — instantly ceasing emissions.
Range Training Officers can electronically track, assess and log all weapon shots and non-kinetic events, able to order the kill-removal of Red Air or cease airborne EW effects via crystal clear Radio over IP connectivity. Correctly enabling these roles is what brings seamless kill-administration, ensuring each vul maintains a logical flow that maximizes training value.
3
100% accurate post-mission review
Post-Mission, every weapon event has been automatically logged in the system and can be individually reviewed by each crew on landing to correct to 100% accuracy.
An adjudication meeting extracts the final truth data and leaves the training audience with a sophisticated playthrough of exactly what happened.
The debrief can then focus on the learning points, the real value of the entire mission — with the Phantom Sky system having accurately monitored, controlled and reconstructed the entire scenario to support.
What is Phantom Sky, exactly?
Phantom Sky is a suite of software applications that integrates the required connectivity and functionality for the delivery of modern training.
Phantom Sky incorporates a bespoke hosting environment with secure connectivity established across facilities, bases, ranges and o�f-range sites as needed, and accredited according to national security requirements. Simply put, Phantom Sky connects Draken’s multi-domain adversary services with your entire training audience, wherever required.
Draken has spent years selecting, integrating and developing the best software and technologies from a superb range of partners and providers:
• Emitter Control and Cueing is via our own Draken proprietary Phantom Sky® application
• Embedded Threat Modelling is provided by our partners at Avioniq
• The front-end live-monitoring, reconstruction and debrief software of choice is SPEAR® provided by our strategic partners Cubic®
Phantom Sky tracking and communication solutions include options for the integration of:
• Radar Feeds, Link 16 and encrypted ACMI
• Secure Radio over IP, mIRC and J-Chat
Sting: Surface Threat delivery
Sting is our Surface Threat delivery service — designed to deliver credible training for OCA-SEAD mission sets by enabling the F2T2EA kill-chain, once integrated with Phantom Sky.
Each Sting site is made up of multiple emitters and surrogate platforms that replicate a SAM site, designed to be rapidly deployable and mobile between, and even during vuls.
We have a growing list of partner providers with lowcost emitter systems we know well and that are already integrated for Phantom Sky control and cueing:
• ADRS All Domain Replication System from ATAero
• ELITE from Advanced Strategic Insight
• DART from Disruptive Electronic Warfare Machines
By integrating low-cost emitters, we can enable the FIND and FIX. To progress the kill-chain we recommend co-location with suitable surrogate platforms, and we have options from preferred suppliers for solutions at varying levels of fidelity across EO/IR and RF.
Your questions answered
What makes this a simulated IADS?
Can you integrate other emitters into the system?
How hard is it to integrate and control a new emitter?
Phantom Sky can control a dense, layered and unlimited number of emitters across multiple Sting sites. This can be bolstered with the creation of an entire IADS connectivity laydown in the Virtual environment, bringing an additional dimension to training that provides meaningful LVC integration and enabling a wider multi-domain training audience.
Yes. While we highly recommend our existing partners and have built successful and enduring relationships with them over multiple testing events, the list is evergrowing.
We are open to working with any other providers and systems according to your requirement, for example non-integrated systems bought previously, or to meet future high-fidelity training aims.
Our existing partners are also rapidly developing new technologies which we can offer as in-service upgrades.
We have built a strong working knowledge of the complex principles involved in integrating emitters for control and cueing. While each emitter is different, the fundamental principles apply — be it for low-cost emitters, or high-end, high-fidelity solutions.
Draken is well equipped to advise on your individual project and to find the best solution across the multiple variables from emitter parameters to tracking solutions, cueing and referencing, waveforms and mission data. Our experience is that Operational Training Infrastructure (OTI) projects often underestimate this complexity.
How does a contract work? What do I buy?
Draken’s offering centres on Managed Service Delivery contracts. We’d welcome the opportunity to design a bespoke Phantom Sky installation and provide the service delivery with dedicated national staff, assisting with security accreditation according to your national policy.
The system can be tailored to meet your exact training aspirations which would be assessed in a consultation phase. An initial setup can be delivered quickly — and, for example, could include centralized emitter control and cueing, integration of communications and tracking feeds, and an unclassified reconstruction.
This can scale at your own pace towards a fully classified, complete Exercise and Range Control system, such as the one we are proud to deliver for the UK’s Royal Air Force. The service is flexible to accommodate your needs and able to develop spirally to support growing requirements over time, starting small and working up as your aspirations grow.
My unit is short on personnel; how many positions would I need to fill?
Do you offer a temporary, deployed service to local unitlevel budget-holders?
Draken can support delivery of the entire Phantom Sky install and provide dedicated, in country maintenance support staff.
Additionally, we can provide Range and Exercise Control staff to bolster military work forces and provide continuity in skilled delivery roles such as Range Training Officer and SAM-1.
We also offer service delivery contracts that include provision of Sting as a service, including dedicated staff to run all the logistics around getting the surface threat to wherever you need it for training.
Yes. While we’d love to sign an enduring contract and partner for all your adversary needs across Red Force, we recognize that sometimes customers just need something fast to meet a pressing need.
Often these are on local unit-level budgets to cover training gaps prior to a future OTI project delivery. For this kind of application, we’d be delighted to scope a bespoke deployed solution that covers a critical training gap for that important exercise or Weapons Instructor Course event.
We welcome starting relationships in this way; it’s an excellent method of getting to know each other and building the confidence that could lead to a future-proof, long-term partnership across our whole Red Force suite of integrated multidomain Adversary Services.
