Inzpiring Jordan

It isn’t the most obvious connection in the world. However, the relationship between Lincoln-based Inzpire and the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) appears to be going from strength-to-strength, as Alan Warnes recently discovered.

In 2013, British company Inzpire, which supplies defence managed services and cutting-edge technological solutions, delivered its first GECO (Air) tablet-based mission system to the RJAF.
It came within a year of both sides meeting at the Farnborough International Air Show in July 2012.
With a combination of military-grade software, hosted on powerful commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, the system offers impressive avionic, mission and training capabilities.
GECO (Air) is a full touchscreen mission system, easily operated with a gloved hand that can be hand-held, knee-mounted or platform-mounted.
As an additional cockpit multi-functional display (MFD) it can be either stand-alone or integrated with the aircraft systems.
Initially, it was used across the RJAF’s helicopter force, which includes Hughes 500s, EC-635s, AH-1 Cobras, AS332 Super Pumas and UH-60 Black Hawks.
Having been impressed with the benefits of the system, trials took place in 2014 to assess the utility of GECO (Air) on the RJAF’s F-16s.
The air force’s fleet of around 30 F-16AM/BM (MLU) jets are based at the sprawling Al Azraq Air Base, where Nos 1, 2 and 6 Squadrons have played a major part in the Arab coalition fighting Daesh.
Trials examined the capabilities and moving map performance of the GECO (Air) in augmenting the avionics of the F-16 cockpit. The system met the RJAF’s requirements and was delivered in August 2015. It means the RJAF can now capitalise on the benefits the tablet brings for situational awareness, safety and mission effectiveness for its fast-jet force.
In mid-October, several RJAF personnel visited the Inzpire site to attend tailored cyber, intelligence, unmanned air systems (UAS) and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) training courses.
Inzpire’s unmanned and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) division employs experts once at the heart of the UK Royal Air Force’s UAV and ISR capabilities, while the cyber, intelligence and counter-terrorism division is made up of experts who were instrumental in building the RAF’s cyber defence capabilities.
During October, Inzpire assisted the RJAF’s on the first steps of developing its own cyber defence capabilities, by providing a week’s advanced cyber training for senior RJAF delegates. This was focused on the advantages of enhancing users’ understanding of current hardware, as an alternative to buying additional costly cyber-security hardware.
Students from the RJAF’s recently formed ISR wing visited Lincoln. The unit operates Air Tractors AT802s, Cessna 208 Caravans, Schiebel S100 Camcopters and Chinese CH-4 UAVs. The group received training based on UAS and ISR missions and processes.
Inzpire training manager, Andy Bain, delivered the ISR and UAS aspects of the training and said: “Jordan sits at the heart of a complex regional situation that concurrently involves live operations, a large-scale humanitarian disaster and major counter-terror operations. Combine this with long borders and vast open areas and Jordan faces a complex and dynamic security situation.
“Managing and integrating the assets, processing the huge amounts of collected data, getting that data to the right people at the right time, and then acting upon it, is a complex and specialised task that the RJAF must undertake.”