The Department of the Air Force is transitioning the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) into a new operational phase after meeting key standards in the past 18 months, the Air Force reported Friday.
ABMS seeks to help commanders and soldiers expedite sharing of information to achieve decision superiority and serves as the department’s contribution to the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All Domain and Control effort.
“We’ve demonstrated that our ABMS efforts can collect vast amounts of data from air, land, sea, space and cyber domains, process that information and share it in a way that allows for faster and better decisions,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown.
Under the new phase, the department’s Rapid Capabilities Office will acquire new software and equipment and install them on aircraft and other hardware and perform more testing activities. The new phase also provides Air Force and Space Force officials an opportunity to test ABMS’ ability to move data to a diverse joint force from a central source.
Capability Release No. 1 marks the initial step under the new phase of the ABMS program. Under this concept, a communications pod aboard a KC-46 Pegasus aircraft will enable the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to get and transmit the latest data needed to deliver decision superiority to the joint force.
