Air Warrior Col. John W. Thompson - KMI Media Group

Special Sction: Countermeasures
a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Some systems are more covert, but that
really doesn’t matter if you’re flying in
the daytime and can be seen anyway. The
main thing is giving the military customer
a product that works in the heat
of battle.”
White Plains, N.Y.-based ITT Electronic
Systems provides its ALQ-211 family
of systems to military customers,
equipping aircrews with multi-spectral
(RF, IR and laser) situational awareness to
allow for effective threat warning, sensor
fusion and countermeasure capabilities.
The systems are used by crews serving
on the AH-64D Apache Longbow, CV-22
Osprey, F-16 and other top defense aircraft.
Before flights, crews can download
local order-of-battle threat information
and match this with other on-board,
real-time links to intelligence systems
on board. When a threat emission is
encountered, the systems allow for analysis
of the threat ID, lethality, mode of
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operation and changing angle of arrival
to the aircraft. It provides protection by
breaking missile lock through RF countermeasures
and cues the use of chaff
and flares.
In designing these systems, it’s essential
to stay on top of constant advancements
on the part of the enemy’s
technology capability, especially with
respect to powerful processing tools. Yet,
at the same time, the military customer
is asking for greater streamlining in the
ease-of-operation of these systems.
“The evolutions in the threat systems
drive the evolutions in the countermeasures
systems,” said Chris Carlson,
director of business development for ITT
Electronic Systems’ Integrated Electronic
Warfare Systems. “There aren’t a bunch of
dumb guys on the other side coming up
with these missiles. So we need to keep
improving the countermeasure products
to keep coming up with ways to get away
from what they send out there.”
As a result, systems are getting
smaller and smaller, but with increased
processing power and digital circuitry.
And all needed data is centralized to help
the user/operator on the aircraft.
“The military customer doesn’t want
the air crew looking at multiple displays
and a barrage of information,” Carlson
said. “We seek to give them a consolidated
picture, to integrate all sensors on
the system so they don’t need to go to a
lot of different displays on different pages.
You want to give them one clear story in
an efficient way. The military customer is
sending a consistent message these days:
Don’t give us new boxes. Take the boxes
you have and give them new functions.
Give us more functionality in less space
and weight.” O
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Dave Ahearn at
davea@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for
related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
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