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Coming on and Coming Up

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Coming on and Coming Up ASD is translating aeronautical technology into combat capability. Coming On and BY JAMES W. CANAN SENIOR EDITOR Coming Up IMFOU'RE an F-16 pilot in Europe. dence in its eventual success is, in as the upgraded F-16C and F-16D, You hear all the ballyhoo about fact, building. such technology demonstration air- the forthcoming wonders of the new The story is the same across a craft as the forward-swept-wing avionics system called LANT1RN, broad spectrum of programs that X - 29 (see "Forward Sweep," p. 60), meaning Low-Altitude Navigation Air Force Systems Command's and the Advanced Fighter Technol- and Targeting Infrared for Night. Aeronautical Systems Division ogy Integration (AFT!) F-16 and With LANTIRN, you hear, you (ASD) has brought along, some- F-111 aircraft. ASD manages all will be able to attack ground targets times bumpily, for several years. these programs, and all benefit, in at night from altitudes as low as one Concepts once considered in some one way or another, from work done hundred feet, under weather, hit circles to be too ambitious or not by ASD's Air Force Wright Aero- them with great precision, and live worth the candle, or both, are now nautical Laboratories (AFWAL) in to fly again. being transformed into more capa- flight dynamics, avionics, propul- You're a typical show-me fighter ble airframes, avionics, and en- sion, and materials. pilot, and you're skeptical. Then gines. Hardware contracts are being ATF program officials and con- you hear from the States that, sure awarded all over the place. tractors will also keep close watch enough, LANTIRN is in deep trou- These days, aeronautical systems on the maneuverability characteris- ble. It pushed too many tenuous newly in production, in flight test- tics Of the F-15 short takeoff and technologies too far, too fast. Just ing, or well along in engineering de- landing (STOL) demonstrator air- another pipe dream of the R&D velopment characterize the work of craft that ASD contracted to build mavens. ASD at least as much as do those late last year. The modified F-15 will Tactical Air Command seems to still in design or early in develop- incorporate engine nozzles for in- think differently, however. TAC is ment. flight reversing and vectoring of placing its bets on LANTIRN, thrust, a feature the ATF is likely to pushing hard for it, and giving it top Harvest of High Technology adopt. It could well provide the key priority. There must be something The serendipity of all ASD pro- to operating from bomb-damaged to it. grams firmly in hand or farther out runways and thus staying in the The next time you take notice, in is becoming more and more ob- fight. late 1984, LANT1RN is coming vious. Each takes advantage of such Taken together as an increasingly right along. Its navigation element is advanced technologies as micro- logical whole. ASD's programs being tested on an F-16, at night and electronics, nonmetallic materials, promise unprecedented combat ca- under combat conditions, with out- and aerodynamic shapes that are pability for the Air Force. It is hap- standing results. Its targeting ele- fundamental, in varying degrees, to pening right now. ment isn't yet ready for testing be- all. The B-1B bomber is in produc- cause its development has been For example, ASD's blue-chip tion. The highly upgraded single- much rockier. But it is a lot better Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) seat F-1 6C and two-seat F- I 6D and more amenable to fixing than its program is assimilating what is fighters, both wired for LANTIRN critics—many of whom are misin- being learned about those technolo- as well as for the Advanced Medi- formed about what it's supposed to gies and others in their application um-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AM- do—have made it out to be. Conti- to such current production aircraft RA AM), began entering the Air 34 AIR FORCE Magazine / January 1985 Force's operational inventory in December. A top-of-the-line Combat Talon C-130, with highly advanced avi- onics, is now being introduced to the Military Airlift Command's spe- cial operations fleet. The two-seater F-15E, having gained acceptance (if not full funding) in the Department of Defense and in Congress, needs ABOVE: An F-1S only a final decision on the disposi- tests the high- priority LANTIRN tion of its cockpit technologies and avionics system. on the division of duties between its Navigation pod frontseater and backseater in order is mounted on to begin moving swiftly through fi- the left of the nal development. aircraft; target- ing pod, on the The ATF, too, is coming on fast. right. RIGHT: DoD approval was imminent at Artist's sketch press time. Design contracts are shows how the scheduled to be awarded to three Short Takeoff and Landing airframe contractors, or three (STOL) and Ma- teams of such contractors, late next neuver Technol- summer. One will be selected in late ogy Demonstra- 1988 to start building the ATF, and it tor aircraft, a should be flying by 1991—only six modified F-15, will take off from years from now. damaged run- The ripening of so many interre- ways. lated ASD R&D programs at the halfway point of the 1980s is not the result of any all-embracing aero- nautical master plan conceived years ago. Rather, it represents a fortuitous confluence of pro- grams—many of them driven by ad- vances in the microelectronics of' sensors, signal processors, and data processors—that were instituted in- dividually over the years to stay ahead of the growing, many-sided Soviet threat in the air. "Our business is to manage proj- ects that keep adding up to a run- ning total of increased capability for the Air Force," declares Lt. Gen. Thomas H. McMullen, ASD's Com- mander. "We try to solve problems as they come—as we see them com- ing—in the aeronautical world." AIR FORCE Magazine January 1985 35 LANTIRN Lights the Way High on the list of such problems is how to attack ground targets at very low altitude, at night and under the weather, with precision. This is why the LANTIRN system, made up of a navigation pod, a targeting pod, and a head-up display (HUD) for the cockpit, is so important. It answers the "how." "I think LANTIRN is doing real well, particularly in the navpod," As depicted General McMullen declares. "The here, the LAN- targeting pod is a challenge, but I TIRN system's don't think there's any insurmount- "night window" able problem with its technology. cockpit HUD We're taking a little more time with should enable ground-attack it to make it well." aircraft crews to The navigation pod is the less in- fly and fight con- tricate of the two. It embodies a fidently at high wide-field-of-view, forward-looking speeds and low altitudes at night infrared (FUR) sensor, a terrain- and under the following radar (TFR), supporting weather. electronics, and an environmental control system. It has posed some big portion of the night away from the issue. We designed the targeting problems of power sufficiency and the enemy . but if we want to be pod to be able to hit a tank because of cooling, but these are relatively able to rule the battlefield at night if it can do that, it can hit all the straightforward and are being rec- the way we do in the daytime. then other targets it's assigned to hit." tified. we need the targeting pod." The LANTIRN targeting pod is A widely overlooked attribute of That pod is a technological hum- very densely packaged. At first, its the LANTIRN system is that its dinger. It contains a FLIR -sensor innards sprang leaks, and wires and navigation pod, acting independent- system with both wide and narrow connectors broke. It was taken out ly of its targeting pod, should enable fields of view, a laser designator and of testing and repackaged. But then single-seat aircraft to overfly and laser ranger, automatic target track- it proved to be incapable of attack- bomb targets in the dark, down low, ers. a missile boresight correlator, ing small tactical targets at required more safely and effectively than any all manner of supporting elec- ranges. The Air Force considered tactical aircraft anywhere (includ- tronics. and an environmental con- giving up on this capability. ing the dual-seat F-ill with its ter- trol system. But the Air Force didn't. Instead. rain-following radar and its Pave Like the navpod, it must be fully it took two new tacks on the target- Tack pod) have been able to manage integrated with the avionics of the ing pod. One was the incorporation in the past. aircraft carrying it. Those aircraft of a number of tracking improve- The targeting pod is a prerequi- will be the F-16C. the F-16D. the ments to allow the pod to acquire site for precision strikes at night. F-15E, and the A-I O. The targeting smaller targets farther away. This But even without it, the navigation pod will enable them to deliver did not turn out to be satisfactory, pod would make USAF's ground- laser-guided glide bombs and imag- however. attack aircraft threats to be reck- ing infrared (UR) Maverick mis- The other, more laborious ap- oned with around the clock. siles. proach was to improve the pod's op- As explained by Col.
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