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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0057.PDF
SCIENCE/SCOPE The United Kingdom will have one of the world's most advanced air defense systems when the new UK Air Defense Ground Environment (UKADGE) goes into operation in 1987. The system will provide protection reaching nearly to Iceland and Norway, and over 300 kilometers southwest over the Atlantic Ocean. UKADGE will have more capacity than other systems developed by Hughes Aircraft Company. In addition to tracking targets with active radar, it can listen to enemy jamming aircraft and use triangulation to calculate their position. Spurious cross-correlations are omitted. UKADGE is being built by a UK Systems Ltd., a company jointly owned by Hughes, Marconi Radar, and Plessey. An Amraam air-to-air missile can be fully tested in only one minute with a sophisticated test station. A typical station consists of 17 bays of state-of-the-art computer-controlled instrumentation and is designed for use in the development lab, military depot, or factory. Due to the thermal time limitation of the missile hardware, it examines all of the missile's functions in about 60 seconds—digital, analog, radio frequency, telemetry, and built-in-test capabilities. The central computer saves all information and analyzes it after the test is completed. The test stations are part of a full-scale development contract the U.S. Air Force awarded to Hughes for the advanced medium-range air-to-air missile. Each station can be expanded into a diagnostic station to pinpoint problem areas down to the smallest replaceable assembly and tell which repair should be made. The U.S. Marine Corps has extra punch for close air support now that the first production models of the laser-guided Maverick missile are rolling off the assembly line. The air-to-ground missile, designated the AGM-65E, guides itself on a coded reflected laser beam from a target illuminated by a laser designator. This precise designation allows the Laser Maverick to be launched safely at targets located near friendly troops. The weapon can be carried by four Marine Corps aircraft: the AV-8B Harrier II, the F/A-18 Hornet Strike Fighter, the A-6E, and the A-4M. Its 300-pound warhead carries a delay fuze, which can be set while airborne prior to missile launch to detonate on impact or after penetrating a target. In operational tests, the Laser Maverick was successful 15 times in 15 launches. The Hughes missile shares the same airframe and propulsion system as the U.S. Air Force infrared-guided Maverick. A U.S. Army laser device has proven to be extremely reliable in tests. The Ground/Vehicular Laser Locator Designator (G/VLLD), which determines distances to targets and illuminates targets for laser- homing weapons, achieved its goal of operating a mean time of 100 hours between failures. G/VLLD systems have operated for the equivalent of more than 108,000 designation missions and more than 45,000 ranging and location missions for a period exceeding 600 hours. The Hughes device can be mounted on armored vehicles or used with a ground tripod. Advanced computers give North America's new air defense system more capability at a fraction of previous operating costs. The Joint Surveillance System (JSS), developed for the U.S. Air Force by Hughes, watches over the entire United States and Canada from eight regional operations control centers. The system is controlled by nine Hughes 5118 ME central computers, each with 500,000 words of memory and capable of performing 1 million operations per second. These computers, in turn, direct seven Hughes HMP 1116 peripheral computers to perform subordinate tasks. The system provides its own back-up whenever faults are detected. Because the system requires less staff and maintenance than the previous system, JSS saves over $100 million a year in operating costs. For more information write to: P.O. Box 45068, Dept. 753, Los Angeles, CA 90045-0068 USA © 1986 Hughes Aircraft Company HUGHES
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