FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1983
1983 - 1072.PDF
DEFENCE Darpa looks ahead LONG BEACH The USA is already spending $2,500 million on advanced research and development applicable to ballistic missile defence, says Dr Robert Cooper, director of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). In March this year President Reagan called for defence in depth against Soviet ballistic missile attack, including the use of space-based weapons. Cooper told the American Institute of Astronautics & Aeronautics' annual meeting at Long Beach, California: "I suspect that if we took the most optimistic view of what technologies we have avail able, we could probably solve most of the problems associ ated with attack by Soviet weapons, as the President has called for. The place we are least well off is in handling the complexity of a battle of 10,000 ICBMs. The battle- management ... surveillance, targeting, communications— the command and control issues—are the real problems we face". Forward-swept wing tech nology (FSW) will show up in the Advanced Tactical Fighter, says Cooper. The Grumman X-29A FSW demonstrator is being designed to take-off and land at speeds of less than lOOkt, because next-generation US Air Force fighters must oper ate from cratered airfields. Such performance is crucial in high-threat European envi ronments, says Dr Cooper, because of the certainty of a major Soviet attack on Nato airfields and the need for the early dispersal of fighters to small airstrips to avoid their destruction. The lack of a high- performance Stol propulsion system will be remedied in 1984, Cooper promises. Mean while forward sweep, variable- camber supercritical aerofoils, and 30 per cent negative static stability are combining in the X-29A to cause "a nightmare in designing a flight control system that can operate throughout the entire envelope". A "massive effort" by the USA to develop very high Sikorsky's AUH-76, previously known as the S-76 Mkll Plus, configured with the Hughes TOW anti tank missile, mast- mounted sight, rescue hoist, and cable cutters above and below the cock pit. The AUH-76 is demonstrating to Belgium this week as a potential replace ment for Alouette His speed integrated circuits using 1 micron, and eventually sub- micron, silicon-chip tech nology will, in the late Eight ies, produce embedded computers "splendidly intel ligent and with spectacular performance", says Dr Cooper. The advanced cruise missile (ACM), with intercontinental range and incorporating stealth technology, will have "extraordinary" new en-route guidance and terminal- homing capabilities. Cooper went on to refer to the satellite-based Global Posi tioning System (GPS), saying that it is now possible to build a receiver/processor 5in in diameter and fin thick. "When GPS is fully in place [in 1988] it is possible that one of these receiver/ processor systems could be put into a guided missile so that the missile would lock on to GPS co-ordinates. It could hit anywhere on Earth and arrive within a few metres of its target with full certainty. With that kind of capability, the terminal homing problem is one of utter simplicity," he concludes. Cooper sees increasing reliance on space-based systems over the next ten years, even to the extent of real-time targeting from space. US spacecraft are being made more resistant to phys ical and electronic attack, using stealth, orbit manoeu vrability, electronic counter- measures, and advanced computers for continued auto matic operation even after the destruction of the ground station. Arapaho lives on LONDON The Royal Navy is converting a container ship into a heli copter carrier for use in the Falklands. The 27,900-ton MV Astronomer is with Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, awaiting the arrival of prefabricated flightdeck and hangar modules being leased from the US Navy. The USA has agreed to supply equipment it used for trials of the Arapaho concept, including a 200ft long, 64ft wide flightdeck and a hangar large enough to accommodate four Sea King helicopters. The basic Arapaho facility weighs some 900 tons and can be installed in 12-18hr using existing dock cargo-handling equipment. The Arapaho facility being supplied to the UK was previously installed on the 18,000-ton container ship Export Leader for US Navy trials. In the space of two days in early October last year, 178 helicopter landings and take- offs were performed, includ ing 45 night landings, 15 of them with a British exchange officer on board. Aircraft used for the trials included two Sikorsky SH-3H Sea Kings, a Bell UH-1N and HH-1H, a Kaman SH-2F Seasprite, and two Boeing- Vertol CH-46 Sea Knights. Aircraft operated in pairs from the two 100ft by 64ft landing spots, each bigger than the flightdeck on a frig ate or destroyer, and the Sea Kings were housed in the 4,000ft2 Arapaho hangar. The US Navy estimates that an Arapaho-equipped merchant vessel can accom modate a detachment of up to six Sea Kings or seven SH-2F (Lynx-sized) helicopters. The deck is stressed to take heavier aircraft, including the CH-47 Chinook, and no obstacle to the use of Harriers was encountered. In addition to the flight- deck and hangar modules, the US Navy will supply fuel, power, lighting, and damage- control facilities. Up to 100,000 US gal of jet fuel can be carried in 5,000 US gal increments. UK contractors will provide accommodation and support modules in the form of standard 40ft units. The MV Astronomer will be operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service as a stores- support and helicopter- operating ship to be deployed in the South Atlantic to supplement existing RFAs. During the Falklands conflict, the Royal Navy converted several merchant ships to "interim Arapaho" standard, including the ill-fated Atlantic Conveyor. This will be the first opera tional use of Arapaho, and will be keenly observed by those involved in its develop ment—Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the UK and USA. 1764 FLIGHT International, 11 June 1983
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
