Network Structure
As stated before, the main users of Link 16 are US military and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) forces through the land, air and sea. For example, take a scenario with an aircraft carrier, AWACS aircraft (much like a flying command center), jets, and a base. First of all, if there are enemy jets on the horizon that are detected by the AWACS; they send a signal back to base asking for permission to engage the enemy fighters. The base will receive the message and ask the commanding officer for a final decision to either attack or lay off the enemy fighters. If word is given to engage the hostile fighters then the AWACS will relay information to the jets to engage, while the aircraft carrier and AWACS keep a location on the enemy. The pilots will engage the enemy and hopefully take down the enemy, and give a status report on the situation. Finally, the AWACS will inform the base that the fighters have been taken down. [5] Hopefully, there are not any international ramifications for the engagement, but that is a basic interaction using Link-16. There are several things that could go wrong in this situation. For instance, there might be a loss of communications between two parts, the information sent might not be totally correct, the message could takes too long to be received or the message might get intercepted by the enemy. First of all, if there is not communication between two of the different vehicles, the enemy might fire first before there is confirmation to engage. Also, the same result might occur or the wrong action might be done if there is error in the message and either friendly fire or death could occur. Moreover, if there is a lag between communication times the enemy has time to escape and possibly get our of range of an attack. Finally, interception might occur from an enemy vessel and they could turn the tide and destroy the friendly fighters in the air. The good thing about Link-16 is that it runs at a relatively high speed, and it's secure and jam resistant. This allows it to successfully transmit communications in the situation described above.
The picture shows the network of communication between the four different vehicles connected in blue. Also, the enemy jets are the vehicles that are shaded red.
There are several things that are sent with Link-16 such help with navigation: audio, text, images, and information to guide smart weapons after they have been launched [6]. An example of navigation would be if a ship were lost at sea, but their communication systems were still up so an airplane could guide them home. A way of audio communication is much like a radio connected between the two vehicles. The plus side of this is a squadron of fighters can communicate with each other to outmaneuver an enemy. Text can be sent much like R2-D2 sends messages to Luke Skywalker in "A New Hope". Furthermore, the advantage of sending text instead of audio is that it takes up a lot less space, much like word documents are less than mp3 files. Moreover the ability to send pictures helps pilots or ships identify targets during bombing missions or to identify enemy planes. The [Communication through Link-16] ability of sending pictures means that a mission can be diverted in the middle without the plane having to land again. The final information that can be sent through Link-16 is commands to smart weapons such as predators or cruise missiles. The positive thing about having the ability to communicate with smart weapons after their launch adds a level of accuracy. It is comparable to Predator missiles in Modern Warfare 3 where you can control the weapon from a box and accurately hit targets. in the end, there are many different applications of Link-16 which makes it a very versatile and reliable form of communications.