AF testing airborne router

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Tests were completed this month on a flying wireless router with near instantaneous communications. The biggest difference between the router in homes and the new flying router is the Air Force's version is attached to a 30mm Gatling gun. The flying router is a new software upgrade called Net-T or network tactical for the LITENING and Sniper advanced targeting pods for all legacy fighters and the B-1. Developmental tests began in October. The 40th Flight Test Squadron tested the software's capability to allow groups of ground forces to communicate with each other via Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver-5, a small arm-mounted touchscreen device the size of an iPad-mini. The Net-T pod capability allows units with ROVER-5s to communicate directly with each other using the aircraft to route signals, so long as the troops are in line-of-sight with the aircraft. The 40th FLTS will send the study to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, by mid-February. The software upgrade will return to Eglin to begin the operational testing with the 53rd Wing. The flying router could be transmitting data in operational aircraft by 2014. (Source: Team Eglin Public Affairs, 01/18/13)