Warfighters will receive critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities sooner, now that the airborne test bed developed by Lockheed Martin has received its Experimental Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration.

This Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) will be used to tailor advanced sensor combinations to resolve specific military, strategic intelligence and homeland security mission needs.

"We've designed the AML so that we can easily test a myriad of sensors to advance the science and art of correlating diverse types of intelligence - with the goal of rapidly providing high-quality data," said Jim Quinn, Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services-Defense's vice president of C4ISR Systems.

A reconfigured Gulfstream III business jet, this multi-INT test-bed will be used for the development of new sensors and processing capabilities for both Lockheed Martin and its customers to expedite the flow of C4ISR capability to warfighters in theater.

A wide array of features on board the aircraft will facilitate this experimentation, including a computing capability that supports most commercial operating systems, a radome on the belly of the aircraft with ample volume for a range of sensors, and four workstations.

In addition, the AML can process data both onboard and on the ground to accommodate a variety of experiments. While the AML is equipped with a robust suite of sensors as well as wideband and narrowband data links, the intent is to rotate sensors as necessary to answer specific requirements.

To achieve that goal, the AML incorporates an easily reconfigurable architecture designed to allow different sensors and equipment to be rapidly integrated into the aircraft's mission systems.

This architecture also allows for future testing of innovative techniques for multi-INT mission planning, intelligence gathering, processing, exploitation and dissemination for a wide variety of missions across the spectrum of operations. Near-term experimentation includes participation in the U.S. Army's upcoming C4ISR On-the-Move exercise, slated for the end of August at Fort Dix, N.J.