OREANDA-NEWS. Rockwell Collins has been awarded a $31 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to support production of the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS) across Air Force, Navy and Army test ranges.  The award comes shortly after the completion of a successful Production Readiness Review. 

 Rockwell Collins is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the next-generation military test range instrumentation system that will replace the Advanced Range Data System (ARDS) currently in use at major U.S. military test ranges. CRIIS equipment will support a variety of platforms, including the F-35 and F-22 for improved operational realism.

The award calls for Rockwell Collins to deliver:

  • 180 ground and airborne subsystems to seven DoD test ranges
  • Initial spares to establish a repair pipeline for system support
  • Support site activation with production hardware at NAS Patuxent River, Eglin AFB, Edwards AFB and White Sands Missile Range

“Over the last eight years of our involvement with risk reduction and development activities for the CRIIS program, there have been uncountable accomplishments, large and small, and no matter what challenge presented itself, the team found a way to get it done,” said Mike Jones, vice president and general manager, Communication, Navigation and Electronic Warfare Solutions for Rockwell Collins, “The key technologies of multi-level security, high throughput datalink networking, and precision GPS-based positioning make the system ready for the F-35, so moving into production makes CRIIS real for test and training instrumentation users. It provides much needed technology to modernize our US military test ranges and extends air combat training to be more operationally realistic as well.”

The CRIIS program fulfills critical DoD requirements to provide Time, Space, Position Information (TSPI), additional platform test data, and employs a more robust, spectrally efficient data link including multiple independent levels of security (MILS). Rockwell Collins has established itself as a leader in this field with their NSA certified airborne MILS system.