美 공군, F-15C 에 Sniper Pod 장착을 통한 야간작전능력 보완 계획

 

美 공군이 주방위군에서 운용하는 F-15C Eagle 전투기들에 대한 AESA 레이더 장착에 이어, Advanced Sniper Pod 장착

을 통해 야간작전능력을 향상시키고자 한다는 AW&ST 의 최근 기사를 소개 합니다.

 

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Night Eyes

F-15C carries an experimental AESA radar and sniper pod combination

Aviation Week & Space Technology, 08/29/2011

Author : David A. Fulghum

 

The F-15C Eagle — with an advanced combination of inexpensively integrated, multispectral sensors — is carving out a new niche for itself, defending U.S. borders via a long-range, nighttime, visual-identification capability.

 

A team comprising members of the aerospace industry, U.S. Air Force and Florida Air National Guard (ANG) has added a Sniper infrared advanced-targeting pod (ATP) to one of its combat-coded fighters. The F-15C has already been upgraded with Raytheon’s APG-63(V)3 active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.

 

Flight tests of the integrated, dual-sensor combination were under way in less than three months, says Maj. Todd Giggy, director of F-15 operations for the ANG Air Force Reserve Test Center (AATC) at Jacksonville (Fla.) International Airport. The program is to judge the suitability of adding Sniper ATP to ANG F-15Cs. The F-15C project office at Robins AFB, Ga., oversaw systems integration.

 

On the tactical side, “it may give the MSIP [multistage improvement program] Eagle an unparalleled capability to rapidly engage asymmetric and conventional air threats to the U.S.,” Giggy says. As a test-program effort, “it was accomplished at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional fighter integration. We believe it is possible to export the concept to other weapon systems, including both fourth- [F-15 and F-16] and fifth-generation [F-22 and F-35] platforms.”

 

Total cost for the full aircraft integration interface of the Sniper sensor is estimated at less than $25,000 per aircraft. A proposed new cockpit display system is tentatively priced at $50,000 per aircraft. The research, design and installation effort was funded by internal research and development funds from Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Fla., and Calculex Inc. of Las Cruces, N.M.

 

The combination of a high-resolution radar and long-range infrared surveillance would give homeland defense units the ability to locate, visually identify and attack small airborne targets in the dark — a capability that has been lacking. The new AESA has a range nearly three times that of the F-15’s original 56-mi.-range radar. The long-range Sniper pod can add a heat signature to further identify the target as a cruise missile, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or a commercial aircraft. According to anecdotal accounts, the sensor can pick out man-sized heat sources beyond the carrying range of jet engine noise with enough precision to provide exact GPS coordinates.

 

The U.S. is subject to a growing list of what are described as asymmetric threats, as well as by conventional weapons. High on that list are air- or sea-launched cruise missiles that can be small or have a stealthy design, either of which reduces their radar signature.

 

The U.S. Air Force and Raytheon initially fielded the AESA radar on active-duty F-15Cs and assigned two Alaska-based squadrons to develop tactics and techniques for intercepting cruise missiles. Those units are now based in Okinawa, Japan, and could confront any cruise missile attacks coming from ships or aircraft in the region. Japan’s government, in particular, is exercised about the incursion of Chinese aircraft and ships into its territorial waters.

 

For U.S. homeland defense, the Eagle’s mission changes from air dominance (involving combat with high-performance aircraft and missiles) to air sovereignty (keeping U.S. airspace free of threats), which usually means a more permissive combat environment where the F-15C’s lack of stealth is relatively unimportant.

 

U.S. Air Force officials will not describe details of the asymmetric threats or sensor performance, but some specifics seem obvious from recent conflicts around the world. Emerging threats include ultra-light aircraft, motorized hang gliders, UAVs and small business aircraft — perhaps on suicide or smuggling missions. Israel’s high-performance F-16s had to locate and shoot down slow, low-flying UAVs operated by Hezbollah flying out of Lebanon in 2006. And in 1982, a small number of Argentine Exocet cruise missiles were able to cripple the British invasion force during the Falklands war. Drug smuggling and terrorist attacks have been attempted with hang gliders and ultra-lights.

 

“This [improved F-15C] product is still in flight-test,” Giggy points out. “What’s new is that we have developed a valid, plug-and-play, open-architecture, integration model that may be repeatable for other [sensor and electronic-warfare] systems.”

 

The concept is similar to adding new applications (apps) to a smart phone.

 

“Instead of buying a whole new operating systems with Google Maps built into it, you get the new Google Maps app for your phone,” Giggy says. “We applied that model to fighter integration. It’s a shift that may have significant utility in applications to other sensor systems.”

 

A typical operational flight program in the integration and design process for the F-15C Eagle takes 4-5 years. The Defense Department’s central computer program is typically a bottleneck. New systems have to wait because the software coding on the jet is not ready. Moreover, the coding is extremely expensive because it is so comprehensive.

 

“We took a fully functional, off-the-shelf Sniper pod and a fully functional, combat-ready F-15C and put them together in 86 days at no cost to the government,” Giggy says. “We were able to plug and play and it worked.”

 

The proprietary architecture model was designed by Calculex and Lockheed Martin — in discussion with the ANG — to provide a smartphone-like interface. An application driver would be provided for each hardware system, along with a way to plug the system in and have it function properly with the existing aircraft.

 

“We didn’t want to buy another box,” Giggy says. “The aircraft has a central computer that we didn’t want to re-create. The only thing we are buying is the pod and the time for someone to code the application. Our hardware integration requires about a $10,000 piece of hardware. That’s a Calculex processor card that becomes the application driver. It goes into the digital video recorder in the F-15.”

 

Moreover, sensors can be added without affecting the rest of the host aircraft’s system. The test team also is evaluating the suitability of installing a new display that shows Sniper data.

 

“Now, there is the potential to add things as soon as they are ready” in a fiscally responsible way, Giggy says. “The items that are typically expensive to integrate, but that are readily available off the shelf are electronic-warfare and sensor systems. These include multispectral sensors, targeting pods, jamming suites and EW systems. If you can provide 80% of the capability [of a traditionally integrated sensor] at 1-2 percent of the cost, you have a chance to move things quickly to the warfighter.”

 

 

  ⓒ USAF

 

  ⓒ USAF

 

  ⓒ USAF

 

  ⓒ USAF

 

  ⓒ USAF