Collins Aerospace advances U.S. Air Force tactical network

CEDAR RAPIDS — Raytheon Technologies on Thursday announced the Common Tactical Edge Network developed by Collins Aerospace has been successfully demonstrated and will be going into development.

The network — known as CTEN — lets tactical data be shared across disparate networks to enable faster decision making on the battlefield, according to a Raytheon news release.

The network connects sensors and shooters on existing and emerging platforms across land, air, sea and space, the company said.

"CTEN is a (U.S. Air Force) JADC2 enabler, operating on a totally open architecture to connect across domains," said Ryan Bunge, vice president and general manager for resilient networking and autonomy solutions for Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids.

"By integrating disparate networks to create an overlay network, the U.S. joint commands are enabled to share critical, time-sensitive data in real time."

CTEN leverages Collins’ understanding of existing and emerging tactical datalinks and radios “to create optimal networking solutions that are applicable across a broad platform base,” the company said in the news release.

Raytheon has a long history integrating platform-agnostic systems for the military.

Pairing a mature digital engineering pipeline with a real-time battlefield emulator allowed the company to demonstrate how an adaptive convergence layer could provide network connectivity across disparate systems in various environments.

The company can integrate organic and third-party capability into the developing CTEN architecture. It has more than 30 National Security Agency-certified multilevel security and end cryptographic units fielded today as well as multiple interoperable aerial network waveforms in use.

Jet Blue

Raytheon also announced this week that Collins Aerospace’s InteliSight Aircraft Interface Device will be installed on more than 200 of Jet Blue’s Airbus A302s.

The device captures, records, stores, encrypts and transmits aircraft data to Collins’ secure cloud platform, GlobalConnect.

The InteliSight data and GlobalConnect “will give JetBlue's flight operations, engineers and maintenance teams the information they need to ensure an even more efficient travel experience for their passengers,” said Jennifer Schopfer, president of connected aviation solutions at Collins Aerospace.

Raytheon, with 2022 sales of $67 billion, has its headquarters in Arlington, Va. It is the largest aerospace and defense company in the world with 180,000 employees.

Collins Aerospace, the largest private employer in Cedar Rapids, has 73,000 employees worldwide and nearly 9,000 in Iowa.