Staring IR arrays from France
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Westinghouse radars pass test Westinghouse has begun in- stalling ALQ-153 tail-warning radars into US Air Force B-52Gs and Hs following suc- cessful reliability and flight trials. Meanwhile, three of the company's Improved APG-66 fire-control radars for the F-16 have completed 23 test flights on a Sabreliner, and the second test phase is under way on an F-16. The ALQ-153 achieved a 200hr mean time between failures (MTBF) over l.OOOhr of tests, compared with the 150hr specification. Two production radars were each subjected to 87 temperature cycles between 71°C and -54°C while vibrating. West- inghouse attributes thesuccess to the corrective action taken against every failure encoun- tered in production testing. In flight trials every one of a "large number" of missiles fired at the tail of the B-52G test aircraft was detected by the ALQ-153. More than 150 trial interceptor approaches were also conducted from different altitudes and at different angles. Four of the five undetected fighters were outside the radar's planned coverage. Westinghouse is modifying the ALQ-153 slightly for use in the B-1B, and has com- pleted most of the develop- ment needed to put the system on the F-lll and F-15, though the USAF has only ordered it for the B-52 and B- 1B. The USAF says that all tasks required in Phase I of the Improved APG-66 test programme have been accom- plished, including integration of the programmable signal processor and dual-mode transmitter. The radar is scheduled to be retrofitted into F-16s as part of the Multinational Staged Im- provement Programme, start- ing in 1984. Westinghouse was able to complete Phase I testing in 23 flights compared with the 60 planned, partly because real- time processing enabled prob- lems to be found and solved during flights, and new avenues could be explored as they appeared. A software- development test bench with simulated signals was used to refine software, resulting in all the modes, including track- while-scan, working on their first air tests. Merchant carriers and Sky Hooks British Aerospace is pro- posing modifications to allow Sea Harrier operations from merchant container ships and destroyers. Shipborne Con- tainerised Air Defence Sys- tem (Scads) is a joint project from BAe, Fairey, and Plessey for a runway which could be set up on a container ship. Sky Hook is a crane mounted on destroyer-type vessels; the Sea Harrier formates with the crane, which grasps the air- craft and swings it to the deck for refuelling and re-arming. A container ship could undergo the Scads conversion within 48hr. Fairey medium girder bridge units mounted on containers make up a run- way and ski-jump. Standard containers house Plessey command and control cabins, aircrew living quarters, air- craft maintenance and arming facilities, and Lightweight Sea Dart, Seawolf, or Ikara mis- siles. Plessey's Shield decoy system could also be included. About 100 containers would be needed, and the conversion A Royal Netherlands Navy Westland Lynx positions over the North Sea rig Trans Ocean 4. Dutch Lynx rescued 42 men from the listing platform on December 24 plus nine from the Sea Fox rig on the same day FLIGHT International, 15 January 1983 DEFENCE cost is put at £15 million per vessel. Aircraft to be operated with Sky Hook would be fitted with a ball above the fuselage. This engages into a gyro-stabilised receptacle on the end of a crane. The pilot manoeuvres within a 10ft 3 envelope using stabilised marker boards as an aid. The arm then locks on to the aircraft and swings it in- board or refuels it via an um- bilical line. Since the Sea Harrier would- be clear of ground effect for take-off, a few hundred pounds of extra weight could probably be car- ried. A destroyer would typi- cally carry two Sky Hooks and could store Harriers below decks or in the helicopter hangar. Both ideas would allow air- craft operations from more vessels within a task force. Foreign navies could use them to supplement their aircraft carriers, particularly if they have only one carrier—a con- tainer ship could be Scads equipped while the carrier was being refitted or during times of tension. Staring IR arrays from France SAT has demonstrated a focal-plane staring infrared detector suitable for providing high-resolution images on future missile homing heads. The first component is an array of 32 10-micron infrared detectors which feed multi- plex signals to a silicon charge-coupled device. This builds up an infrared picture from the array, replacing the mehanical scanning mech- anism currently used. SAT, which has done the initial work with the CEA infrared laboratory at Gren- oble, says that thermal resolu- tion with a focal-plane array is comparable with that avail- able with the best thermal cameras. Hundreds of ele- ments are likely to be used in future staring arrays being de- veloped by SAT for third- generation anti-tank missile homing heads. This 1990s, seeker will be able to detect weak images against heavy IR clutter, says SAT. Hughes is working on a 4,096-element staring array for missile seekers (Flight October 9, 1982, page 1029). 117
Transcript of Staring IR arrays from France
Westinghouse radars pass test Westinghouse has begun installing ALQ-153 tail-warning radars into US Air Force B-52Gs and Hs following successful reliability and flight trials. Meanwhile, three of the company's Improved APG-66 fire-control radars for the F-16 have completed 23 test flights on a Sabreliner, and the second test phase is under way on an F-16.
The ALQ-153 achieved a 200hr mean time between failures (MTBF) over l.OOOhr of tests, compared with the 150hr specification. Two production radars were each subjected to 87 temperature cycles between 71°C and -54°C while vibrating. Westinghouse attributes thesuccess to the corrective action taken against every failure encountered in production testing.
In flight trials every one of a "large number" of missiles fired at the tail of the B-52G test aircraft was detected by the ALQ-153. More than 150 trial interceptor approaches were also conducted from different altitudes and at different angles. Four of the five undetected fighters were outside the radar's planned coverage.
Westinghouse is modifying the ALQ-153 slightly for use in the B-1B, and has completed most of the development needed to put the system on the F - l l l and F-15, though the USAF has only ordered it for the B-52 and B-1B.
The USAF says that all tasks required in Phase I of the Improved APG-66 test programme have been accomplished, including integration of the programmable signal processor and dual-mode transmitter. The radar is scheduled to be retrofitted into F-16s as part of the Multinational Staged Improvement Programme, starting in 1984.
Westinghouse was able to complete Phase I testing in 23 flights compared with the 60 planned, partly because realtime processing enabled problems to be found and solved during flights, and new avenues could be explored as they appeared. A software-development test bench with simulated signals was used to refine software, resulting in all the modes, including track-while-scan, working on their first air tests.
Merchant carriers and Sky Hooks British Aerospace is proposing modifications to allow Sea Harrier operations from merchant container ships and destroyers. Shipborne Containerised Air Defence System (Scads) is a joint project from BAe, Fairey, and Plessey for a runway which could be set up on a container ship. Sky Hook is a crane mounted on destroyer-type vessels; the Sea Harrier formates with the crane, which grasps the aircraft and swings it to the deck for refuelling and re-arming.
A container ship could undergo the Scads conversion within 48hr. Fairey medium girder bridge units mounted on containers make up a runway and ski-jump. Standard containers house Plessey command and control cabins, aircrew living quarters, aircraft maintenance and arming facilities, and Lightweight Sea Dart, Seawolf, or Ikara missiles. Plessey's Shield decoy system could also be included. About 100 containers would be needed, and the conversion
A Royal Netherlands Navy Westland Lynx positions over the North Sea rig Trans Ocean 4. Dutch Lynx rescued 42 men from the listing platform on December 24 plus nine from the Sea Fox rig on the same day
FLIGHT International, 15 January 1983
DEFENCE
cost is put at £15 million per vessel.
Aircraft to be operated with Sky Hook would be fitted with a ball above the fuselage. This engages into a gyro-stabilised receptacle on the end of a crane. The pilot manoeuvres within a 10ft3 envelope using stabilised marker boards as an aid. The arm then locks on to the aircraft and swings it inboard or refuels it via an umbilical line. Since the Sea Harrier would- be clear of ground effect for take-off, a few hundred pounds of extra weight could probably be carried. A destroyer would typically carry two Sky Hooks and could store Harriers below decks or in the helicopter hangar.
Both ideas would allow aircraft operations from more vessels within a task force. Foreign navies could use them to supplement their aircraft carriers, particularly if they have only one carrier—a container ship could be Scads equipped while the carrier was being refitted or during times of tension.
Staring IR arrays from France SAT has demonstrated a focal-plane staring infrared detector suitable for providing high-resolution images on future missile homing heads. The first component is an array of 32 10-micron infrared detectors which feed multiplex signals to a silicon charge-coupled device. This builds up an infrared picture from the array, replacing the mehanical scanning mechanism currently used.
SAT, which has done the initial work with the CEA infrared laboratory at Grenoble, says that thermal resolution with a focal-plane array is comparable with that available with the best thermal cameras. Hundreds of elements are likely to be used in future staring arrays being developed by SAT for third-generation anti-tank missile homing heads.
This 1990s, seeker will be able to detect weak images against heavy IR clutter, says SAT. Hughes is working on a 4,096-element staring array for missile seekers (Flight October 9, 1982, page 1029).
117
