Northrop Grumman, AT&T and SEMPRE Demonstrate Next-Generation Flightline Maintenance Operations

Northrop Grumman Corporation, AT&T and SEMPRE announced that they have demonstrated the ability to securely share sensitive, classified military data across geographies at high speeds. The demonstration showcased how flightline maintenance and sustainment can be digitally transformed to reduce time and costs associated with aircraft maintenance and repair.

Northrop Grumman integrated its secure communications solution into a commercially available augmented reality headset worn by an aircraft maintainer to transfer high volume, classified aircraft data across a SEMPRE 5G private network and AT&T’s 5G commercial network between Whiteman Air Force Base and Northrop Grumman facilities in Palmdale, California, and San Diego.

Jenna Paukstis, vice president general manager, networked information solutions, Northrop Grumman: “In a combat environment, the ability to quickly troubleshoot aviation and ground vehicles to get them back in the fight is essential. The ‘Flightline of the Future’ is a next-generation digital solution providing U.S. forces with the capability to securely access information and subject matter experts right on the flightline to repair assets with speed and accuracy, reducing costs and increasing fleet readiness.”

Lance Spencer, client executive vice president, defense, AT&T: “We showcased how our commercial 5G wireless network combined with private networking services can transport and protect both Highly Classified information and Controlled Unclassified Information and provide the U.S. Department of Defense the networking foundation it needs for private mission use cases. The speed, security, reliability and scalability benefits are precisely what the Department seeks in its modernization efforts.”

Dr. Rob Spalding, chief executive officer, SEMPRE: “This demonstration proves advanced capabilities will be available to DoD units for deployed and in garrison requirements. SEMPRE’s deployable infrastructure helps Northrop Grumman deliver hardened connectivity and compute capability to the warfighter, even when the connection to the cloud is no longer available.”

The “Flightline of the Future” solution demonstrates how aircraft maintainers can securely connect with subject matter experts to perform maintenance and upgrades previously limited to information accessible only in a secure location.

The demonstration showed how combining commercially available AR headsets with commercial and private 5G networks can support defense-specific security solutions, processes, and data and provide for a best-of-breed solutions applicable in any domain.

Source: Northrop Grumman Corporation media announcement