$29 million Lockheed contract secures first round fire for effect on high-value targets
By Marcus Boone ·
High-value targets are hunted by a guarded system designed to achieve first round fire for effect, leveraging a secret triangulation advantage restricted from foreign countries.
"Locate and kill the enemy."
That is the blunt, unvarnished objective of the Communications High Accuracy Airborne Location System, or CHAALS. According to a program page mirrored by the FAS Intelligence Resource Program, the system was designed to provide the targeting capability necessary to find "High Value Targets (HVTs)" with enough precision that organic artillery could achieve "first round fire for effect."
In the language of the military, "fire for effect" is the final stage of a bombardment—the point where the goal is no longer to adjust the aim, but to destroy the target. The CHAALS-X system was built to ensure that the first shell fired was the one that hit.
"Locate and Kill"
The system operates by mixing airborne and ground-based assets to pinpoint enemy weapon systems and units. The record notes that this capability persists "regardless of whether the enemy uses conventional or modern radios." It is a dragnet for any signal that betrays a position.
This capability evolved from earlier precision location subsystems used in GUARDRAIL Common Sensor (GR/CS) systems 4 and 1. By the time the RC-12P/Q aircraft were deployed, the primary mission equipment had been augmented with new pods. These pods enabled a "single panel ELINT collection capability" and improved the accuracy of the system to the CHALS-X standard. The RC-12P/Q also incorporated a dual data link, allowing for "single tether and remote relay employment," effectively extending the reach of the eyes in the sky.
Document imagery from irp.fas.org From the files: irp.fas.org
Time-Difference-Of-Arrival
The technical heart of this lethality is a method known as Time-Difference-Of-Arrival/Differential Doppler (TDOA/DD). By calculating the minuscule difference in time it takes for a radio signal to reach different sensors, the system can triangulate a target's position with lethal precision.
The FAS record asserts that the continued evolution of this TDOA/DD capability provides a "technology advantage over any other country," a secret so guarded that it has been "restricted from release to foreign countries."
This focus on precision mirrors a broader, often troubled, military effort to modernize communications. Public records on the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) show a long-term attempt to replace a clutter of hardware with a single set of software-defined radios capable of adding new waveforms via upload. While JTRS struggled with cost overruns and program restructuring, the CHAALS evolution moved toward a different kind of efficiency: the shrinking of the hardware.
Two boxes in a rack
As the electronics improved, the physical footprint of the surveillance shrunk. The FAS record describes a reduction in "size/weight/power requirements," noting that what once required three racks of computer equipment had been reduced to "two boxes which fit into a standard 19 inch rack."
This miniaturization is reflected in the product line: the original CHAALS gave way to the CHALS-X, which then spawned the CHALS-X(M)—the miniaturized version. The goal was a leaner, more portable instrument of geolocation.
March 19, 1999
Precision is a commodity, and the government bought it from the private sector. On March 19, 1999, Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, based in Owego, N.Y., was awarded a contract for engineering and logistics support. The contract was a mix of cost-plus-fixed-fee, time and materials, and firm-fixed-price.
The financial stakes were specific. The base year was capped at $9,000,000, with an estimated cumulative total not to exceed $29,000,000. This funding supported the upgrades, improvements, and repairs for a suite of products including the CHALS-X and the CHAALS Remote Data Link (RDL).
While the technical specifications of TDOA/DD remain guarded, other fragments of the era's surveillance efforts exist in other archives. The National Security Archive at GWU holds records from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dating to 2025, and the State Department's FRUS series contains National Intelligence Estimates on air defense and national security policy from the 1950s and 60s. These records point to a long, unbroken line of attempts to master the airwaves for the purpose of targeting.
Lockheed Martin's work in Owego was tasked with maintaining the edge of that line. According to the FAS record, the contract was expected to be completed by March 20, 2004.