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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 1536.PDF
1534 FLIGHT International, 23 May 1981 Improved Fighting Falcon on the way Countries interested in the General Dynamics F-16/79 export fighter (foreground) continue to evaluate the company's two-seat demonstrator. The F-16/101 Derivative Fighter Engine test programme is now winding down, the General Electric engine having performed well in the F-16 testbed (centre). F-I6A (background) multinational operational test and evaluation reports will be completed next month, after l± years of flying by US, Belgian, Danish, Netherlands and Norwegian aircrew GENERAL DYNAMICS will deliver the first F-16A+, the 330th US Air Force Fighting Falcon, in November. The aircraft will feature structural and wiring provision for beyond- visual - range air-to-air missiles, electro-optical nav / attack systems and improved cockpit displays. De velopment of improved radar, display and avionics equipment has started, ready for delivery to the USAF from December 1984. The F-16 Multinational Staged Im provement Plan (MSIP) was launched last February with the authorisation of EGP350, covering wing structure and wiring for the Amraam air-to-air missile, inlet hardpoints and wiring for the Lantirn night-attack pod sys tem, cockpit structure and wiring for the wide-angle headup display and head-down multifunction displays and wiring for improved avionics. The F-16 "expanded core avionics" include a double-speed, double- memory digital computer equipped to control a second multiplexed data- bus, a modified stores management system able to handle the planned weapons and a programmable display generator to drive the headup and head-down cathode ray tubes. Proto type core avionics will fly in GD's AFTI/F-16 advanced fighter-techno logy demonstrator, scheduled to begin flight-test in August or September. MSIP Stage I also includes struc tural provision for a radar altimeter and the ASPJ internal electronic countermeasures (ECM) system. Load capacity of centre wing pylons will be increased from 2,5001b to 3,50Olb (1,135kg to £l,590kg) and GD is mak ing a minor structural change to the fin, allowing addition of a braking parachute if required. Environmental control system control logic will be modified to improve efficiency* At about the same time, an increased-area tailplane will be intro duced which allows greater e.g. travel with external stores and which is easier and cheaper to produce— titanium is eliminated from the struc ture. The first airframe sections with ECP350 modifications are on the pro duction line at GD's Fort Worth, Texas, plant. The USAF will have to wait until December 1984 to receive the equipment provided for in ECP350, but the early introduction of structural changes on the production line will cut the cost of retrofitting the fleet. Depending on production rate, MSIP Stage II, the improved avionics, advanced displays, radar altimeter and uprated radar, will be introduced between the 750th and 800th US Air Force F-16. Flight trials of some sys tems are expected to begin next year. Westinghouse received the radar development contract in July last year and is incorporating a high speed digital programmable signal processor and dual-mode, medium/ high pulse-rate transmitter. The addition of high-pulse-rate search modes will increase radar range by between 30 per cent and 60 per cent. The addition of track-while- scan will match the F-16 to the multi- shot, fire-and-forget Amraaim missile, the beyond-visual-range weapon mak ing full use of the increase in detec tion range. Additional air-to-ground modes will complement the Lantirn infrared and terrain-following sen sors, and will include high-resolution ground mapping. At the same time, the Marconi Avionics wide-angle diffractive optics headup display (Hud) will be fitted, allowing thermal imagery from Lan- tirn to be displayed to the pilot. Communications, navigation and identification controls will be re located "up front" below the Hud. The two multifunction displays flank ing the centre console will present radar, infrared or Maverick seeker imagery and systems status data. MSIP Stage III, including Lantirn, Amraam and ASPJ, is scheduled tenta tively for introduction between 1984 and 1986, as the systems become available. Martin Marietta began de velopment of Lantirn in September last year, with production planned to start between 1985 and 1987 (see Flight, April 25, page 1166). The night attack system consists of two pods, mounted on the intake of the F-16, housing navigation and targeting sensors. The navigation pod contains wide- angle forward-looking infrared (Flir) and terrain-following radar, the latter providing steering commands to the pilot via his Hud. The targeting pod contains a selectable wide/narrow field-of-view Flir for target recogni tion and automatic tracking and a laser designator/rangefinder. Target recognition and handoff to infrared- imaging Maverick air-to-surface mis siles will be automatic. The ASPJ ECM programme is at an early stage, with competitive development continuing between Northorp/Sanders and Westinghouse/ ITT. Space for ASPJ components is available in the F-16 and the holes for wire looms and waveguides will be incorporated as part of ECP350. At the moment US and Netherlands F-16s use the Westinghouse ALQ-131 ECM pod. Belgian and Israeli F-16s use the Loral Rapport HI internal countermeasures set. Other improvements planned for the F-16A+, to be introduced be tween 1984 and 1986, are the Jtids secure, jam-resistant command-and- control datalink (see Flight, May 9, page 1329) and Seek Talk ECM- resistant voice communications. Satellite-derived Global Positioning System navigation information will be catered for. Amraam is planned to arm the F-16 from 1965. The first test firing of a Hughes round from an F-16 took place earlier this year, closely fol lowed by the launch of a competing Raytheon missile from an F-15. Amraam has an active radar seeker, unlike the semi-active Sparrow mis sile which requires a separate target illuminator, something the F-16 lacks. The F-16 will carry the General Elec tric Gepod 30 five-barrel 30mm can non for air-to-ground attacks. • The first of two F-16 development aircraft due to be converted to F-16XL cranked-arrow-wing proto types has been returned to GD for conversion. F-16XL is a private- venture programme to develop a 1990s fighter offering double the pay- load/range performance of the F-16.
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