TALON SHIELD

 

Air Force Space Command,  and now Space Force, play a key role as customer to AF TENCAP. A major 

Space Project success was called Talon SHIELD, initiated after missile warning shortfalls were identified 

during Desert Storm.  Talon SHIELD development and deployment was so successful, that the Air Force

Space Command generated a program of record operational capability, resulting in the standup of a new

 Missile Warning unit, armed with SHIELD capability. Established in 1994, this unit and SHIELD capability 

evolves with changing threats, and today is part of Space Delta 4, US Space Force.

 

TALON SILENCE

 

Was an alternate Position, Navigation, and Timing (Alt-PNT) project that 

exploits space-based radio frequency (RF) signals of opportunity (no a priori 

knowledge) and uses time difference of arrival calculations between a ground 

reference system (GRS) and an airborne reference system (ARS) to a real time 

alt-navigation solution. Talon SILENCE utilizes various satellite 

constellations as source data and leverages existing, on-board, apertures to 

maximum extent possible to minimize integration time and cost. Talon SILENCE was

demonstrated on SOCOM aircraft in CONUS, OCONUS, and in live-jamming 

environments, while providing operationally acceptable position accuracy 

utilizing signals in multiple RF bands.

TALON THRESHER

 

The history of THRESHER began with a warfighter request from what is now 

INDOPACOM for the development of a new system to help gain air domain 

awareness (ADA) of airborne threats in the Pacific region. AF TENCAP designed 

an agile unique solution with a blend of Title 10 (armed force) and Title 50 

(intelligence) data and tradecraft to produce what is now a world-wide air 

domain awareness system. It has since garnered recognition as an innovative 

approach to ADA and software development within the IC and DoD communities alike.

 

This technology started with a few ideas about how to produce a low-cost 

software system that worked in near real-time, something that no other

system could do, while at the same time robust enough to be scaled larger and 

accessible by many users to collaborate.  AFTENCAP and the IC worked closely 

using rapid acquisition techniques and an agile developer to incrementally build 

the system into what is THRESHER today. The success was largely due in part

to the partnership of aviation domain subject matter experts with the IC 

community and software coders to rapidly identify, prioritize and develop 

features that actually mattered to the warfighter. The system now has 

thousands of world-wide users, operates 24/7, and now includes

newly added Maritime domain awareness information as well.

 

THRESHER is unique in that it is a cloud-based system with air domain fusion 

engine, using "Big Data" to improve tracking and identification of aircraft on 

an industrial scale, meaning thousands of air tracks at a time.  There is no 

need to install, maintain, or update software for each of the thousands of 

users across the Intelligence Community, DoD and others. Another unique 

feature of THRESHER is that it operates at multiple classification levels to 

provide a comprehensive, integrated and tactically-relevant air picture with 

analytic tools to identify and understand theater air operations. This was 

done with smart policy advocacy, across multiple agencies, and with the trust that 

AFTENCAP built with multiple partners. 

THRESHER is Government off the shelf (GOTS), Intelligence Community (IC) 

Information Technology Enterprise (ITE) ready, and Public Key Infrastructure 

(PKI) enabled, with zero user base subscription costs.  However,  

it brings to bear an incredible Situational Awareness (SA) enhancement 

capability which users can leverage, along with other tools and techniques, to 

stay relevant across the globe in an ever-changing information domain 

battlefield.

 

TALON POP-I

 

POP-I was a machine learning (ML) effort tackling big data processing of specialized 

data. Rapid fusion customer comments at close out included, "What normally takes 6 hours of 

analytical manpower can be done by the POPI capability in 1 minute," and 

"Talon POPI is helping to solve a big data problem that the IC has struggled with for 20 years."