ARKONA (ACCS) () is an Air Command and Control System of the

German Air Force The German Air Force (, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ) was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of West Ger ...

Definition

According to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

terminology, ARKONA is an Air Situation Awareness / Recognized Air Picture (RAP) system of the former

National People's Army The National People's Army (, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (DDR) from 1956 until 1990. The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) and the (Bord ...

(NVA) operated by the

Air Forces of the National People's Army The Air Forces of the National People's Army ( [], ) was the air force of East Germany. As with the , the , and the Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic, Border Troops, it was a military branch of the National People's Army (NVA). A ...

. After the German reunification in 1990, it was adapted to NATO standards, developed to an ACCS, and integrated to the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

. The original NVA designation for it is: .

History

ARKONA was developed, introduced and operated by order of the

Command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * command (Unix), a Unix command * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on A ...

. The overall responsibility was with the ACOS and Chief Command Posts and Automation ( de: Gefechtstände Automatisierung - GSA) Major General Dr. G. Hiemann. It was dedicated exclusively to the East German Air Force and operated on the Air Command and Control level, and according to NATO terminology was a

Control and Reporting Centre A Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) is according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff publication 1.02 defined as: "A subordinated air control element of the tactical air control centre for which radar control and warning operations are conducted within ...

(CRC). The system design, software development, maintenance, and change were mainly provided by East German soldiers / IT engineers having an education background in the Soviet Union's S.M Budjonny Military Academy in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. With the final software release, the NVA was equipped with a co-primary

Air Command and Control System Air Command and Control System (ACCS) is the NATO project planned to replace the NATO Air Command and Control Systems of the 1990s. At the highest level it comprised the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) from which the air battle is run. Bene ...

(ACCS) which was independent from the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

system ALMAS at that time. In terms of trust and

availability In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings: * The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at ...

, ARKONA did have advantages in comparison to ALMAS. ARKONA had some compatibility issues with the Integrated NATO Air Defense System (ARKONA did not have full backup capability as to weapons control and operations), but the basic ideas were preserved. The general positive assessment of the ARKONA IT-Architecture initiated the final decision to transfer ARKONA to the Bundeswehr.

Take-over and utilisation in the Bundeswehr

After ARKONA was taken over by the Bundeswehr, the rework of the system documentation (including the IT-Security Concept) had to be provided as this is the case with any product procured by the Bundeswehr. It also had to be subsequently upgraded to be fully compatible and interoperable with the NATO ACCS. The ARKONA system has now been embedded into the organisational structure of the

. In the time to come, the utilisation of ARKONA will take place mainly in stationary CRC, in deployable engagements, and by third-party users with the agreement of the responsible support manager.

Functionality today

ARKONA is a self-supporting system with interfaces to other IT-Architectures. Internally, the system receives

Tactical Data Links A tactical data link (TDL) uses a data link standard in order to provide communication via radio waves or cable. NATO nations use a variety of TDL standards. All military C3 systems use standardized TDL to transmit, relay and receive tactical ...

(TDL) information (e.g. Link 1) and then generates, distributes and displays a Recognized Air Picture (RAP). During missions, different systems of co-ordinates can be displayed and changed. ''Bull's–eye Control ''is possible along with ''Vector Assistance''. ARKONA is capable to receive, process, and display information from different sensors with different data formats. The appropriate CRC operational scenario in relation to military missions and training might be provided on the basis of the working position mode. Up until 2005, the processing of

flight plan Flight plans are documents filed by a aviator, pilot or flight dispatcher with the local Air Navigation Service Provider (e.g., the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA in the United States) prior to departure which indicate the plane's planned ...

dates was supported by ADMAR 2000 and will eventually be supported by CIMACT.

Features

* Compatibility to The NATO Data link standards Link 1 and interoperability to the NATO Air Defence * Maximal upper limit of targets to be processed = 3,000 Flight targets (Tracks) * Direct connection of up to 255 sensors * Sensor data reception via the military RADAR Data Network (MilRADNET) and the RDNAT of the

Deutsche Flugsicherung Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) is the company in charge of air traffic control for Germany. It is a company organized under private law and 100% owned by the Federal Republic of Germany. Since January 1993, DFS has been controlling air traffic in G ...

(DFS) * Conversion of any proprietary RADAR data format to the

ASTERIX ''Asterix'' ( or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul"; also known as ''Asterix and Obelix'' in some adaptations or ''The Adventures of Asterix'') is a Franco-Belgian comics, French comic album book series, series about a Gaulish village which, thanks ...

data standard * Link 1 data exchange with up to 16 Air Defence Control Centres * Data communication via the

Joint Tactical Information Distribution System The Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) is an L band#IEEE L band, L band Distributed Time Division Multiple Access (DTDMA) network radio system used by the United States Department of Defense and their allies to support data co ...

(JTIDS) Message Specification/Standard with AWACS * LAN data communication via TCT/IP and UDP/IPLAN
ARKONA can process the ASTERIX categories CAT001, 002, 034 and 048, available via the civil DFS RADNAR.

Hardware and Software

ARKONA runs on

COTS COTS may refer to: * Commercial off-the-shelf, products that are commercially available and can be bought "as is" * Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, a NASA program for delivery to the International Space Station by private companies * ...

hardware which has to meet specific technical requirements. With the exemption of a small number of particular cases, x86-Class PCs are recommended. The operating system for ARKONA is Microsoft. Software engineering, maintenance, and change is executed by the

GAF Gaf (; ), is the name of different Perso-Arabic alphabet, Perso-Arabic letters, all representing . They are all derived from the letter Kaph, kāf, with additional diacritics, such as dots and lines. In name and shape, it is a variant of ''kaph ...

C3 Systems Support Centre (GAF C3 SSC) in

Erndtebrück Erndtebrück is a municipality in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Location Erndtebrück situated on the river Eder in the Rothaargebirge, approx. 20 km northeast of Siegen. Neighbouring com ...

. The previous software (based on MS Windows and COTS hardware) changed at the end of the 1990s. Windows became permanently more complex, the hardware configuration had to be changed more frequently, and along with this the possible IT-security risks became unacceptable. In order to overcome these problems, the German Improved Air Defence System (GIADS) was introduced in 2004.

In-Service Support Management

The General Air Force Office, and later the GAF Material Command and finally the GAF Weapon Systems Command has been in charge of the ARKONA In-Service Support Management (ISSM) since its take-over to the Bundeswehr in 1990. Today this WSC provides the obsolescence management, the hardware and software configuration control and the software related instructions to the GAF C3 SSC. The in-service support manager approves and certifies on request the utilization of ARKONA by third party users.

End of life cycle utilization

With the closure of the last ARKONA CRC – Brockzetel in December 2010, the stationary utilization of the ACC System was frozen. For special cases, such as the Deployable Air Situation Display and Interface Processor System (DASDIPS), and as far as the logistic maintenance remains possible, ARKONA will be used continuously. This will be the case for third party users as well. Moreover, there might be requirement for selected features e.g.: * Interface functionality / data exchange of tactical data links * Utilization of the ARKONA IT-Security gateway function ''high-to-low ''(certified by the National Certification Authority) in line with the Security Operating Procedures (SOP) * ASTERIX conversion of proprietary RADRA data formats * Mode S processing / display DASDIPS consists mainly of deployable hardware and software products operated by the GAF Tactical Command and Control Service (TACCS). Some of these components include the ARKONA System, the remaining terrestrial radio systems of the Aeronautical Mobile Service (R-863, AMS East) and the CSI System. DASDIPS is mainly dedicated to support limited operations (e.g. to provide assistance to the

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

, exercises, etc.) with the emphasis on RAP display, interface functionality, and the improvement of the Air Situation Awareness. At present, the successor product GIADS is operational in the stationary and deployable CRCs.

References

* G. Hiemann, Lehrbuch Mil. FS, ... 1987, * Sowj. Truppen in D, ... 1994, * 50 Jahre Einsatzführungsdienst der Luftwaffe 1969–2010, issued by L. Fölbach

External links

*
Fölbach Medienservice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkona (Fuwes) Air Forces of the National People's Army Cold War military equipment of Germany Information operations and warfare German Air Force NATO Command and control Air defence radar networks