In the austere desert or island outpost of the future, the U.S. Marine Corps wants its aircraft to land on a functioning airfield 90 minutes after the required equipment is flown in via an MV-22 Osprey or CH-53 King Stallion.
That’s the vision behind the Expeditionary Precision Approach Landing Capability (EPALC) it’s looking to acquire. In a new request for information published Monday, Naval Air Systems Command is asking industry for details about available flight line navigation systems that would allow the Corps to land any of its aircraft, manned or unmanned, in all weather conditions.
According to the solicitation, the navigation system must fit inside an MV-22, CH-53, or C-130 transport and take a four-person team no more than 90 minutes to set up. It has to be able to provide precision approach guidance to aircraft during bad weather that limits visibility to half a mile, and have an operating range of 20 nautical miles. The gear has to be rugged, according to specifications, with “environmentally hardened” features capable of operating in temperatures ranging from -20 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit and at humidity levels of 85%.
The requirements all align with Marine Corps “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations,” a forward-looking operating concept the Corps has developed over the last decade that emphasizes dispersed operations with self-sufficient small units in the littorals, or coastal regions.
EABO “involves the employment of mobile, low-signature, operationally relevant, and relatively easy to maintain and sustain naval expeditionary forces from a series of austere, temporary locations ashore or inshore within a contested or potentially contested maritime area in order to conduct sea denial, support sea control, or enable fleet sustainment,” according to a description published by the service in 2021.
The idea of operating in contested areas also informs security requirements, which include a friend-or-foe identification system, resistance to jamming or spoofing, and the ability to operate silently and with minimal detectable signature.
The new capability described in the RFI parallels the ship-based Joint Precision Approach and Landing (JPALS) system that has revolutionized aircraft carrier landings by providing GPS-based guidance in to the flight deck, taking much of the guesswork (and terror) out of catching the wire, particularly at night or in low-visibility weather conditions.
That’s no coincidence. JPALS is made by RTX-owned Collins Aerospace, which also has developed the land-based expeditionary Joint Precision Approach Landing System (eJPALS), built for rapid deployment and “full functionality within just 90 minutes,” according to the company.
Collins’ “land-based eJPALS and ship-based JPALS systems complement each other seamlessly, working in conjunction with the JPALS airborne software and providing pilots with familiar instrumentation,” an eJPALS fact sheet states. It adds that the system can come with an optional surveillance feature to support air traffic control.
The Marine Corps has already had an opportunity to test out a version of eJPALS. In 2021, the system was quietly shipped to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, for a three-week demo involving 50 landings, including the vertical approaches performed by the service’s F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, according to a report from Breaking Defense.
An executive told the outlet at the time that the Marine Corps was “looking at ways of incorporating [eJPALS] into the next budget request.”
The company has also pitched eJPALS to the U.S Air Force.
The new RFI, which will “allow NAVAIR to conduct and identify possible sources in the commercial marketplace capable of providing Expeditionary Precision Approach Landing Capability,” according to the solicitation, represents an early step toward actually investing and fielding the technology. Interested companies have until Jan. 16 to respond with descriptions of tech that matches NAVAIR’s requirements.
Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning investigative and enterprise reporter covering the U.S. military and national defense. The former managing editor of Military.com, her work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Politico Magazine, USA Today and Popular Mechanics.
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