Radio link sought for fighters, airliners

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — F-15 fighter jets flying combat air patrols over the United States as part of homeland defense must have radios that can communicate directly with any commercial airliner deemed suspicious, Sen. Charles Grassley says.

Because of different frequencies used by F-15s and commercial airlines’ radios, communication now is accomplished by relay through ground controllers, he said in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel.

"A few short seconds, and a miscommunication could lead to a tragic situation," Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote the subcommittee chairman, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and the top Republican, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. His office released the March 20 letter on Thursday.

Grassley asked that $39 million — the cost estimated by the Air Force — be included in an upcoming spending bill to equip 583 of the F-15s with such radios.

Airlines communicate on the very high frequency, or VHF, band, while the F-15s communicate on the ultra high frequency, or UHF, band, and do not carry the VHF radios needed to talk to the civilian aircraft, Grassley wrote.

"We need to find a way to ensure that these two planes can talk to one another," Grassley said in a statement Thursday. "Funding to make certain that no commercial airliners are diverted, or tragically terminated, should be of utmost importance for homeland security."

The F-15s have been assigned to intercept commercial airliners that are identified or suspected of being under terrorist control.

Lacking the ability to contact the airliner directly, "communications are accomplished in an indirect way, by relay through ground controllers," Grassley wrote. "This can be cumbersome, time consuming and subject to error."

"If hostile intent is determined, the interceptor acting through its chain of command, may be ordered to direct the airliner to an available airfield or, in the extreme case, to terminate the airliner’s flight," Grassley wrote.