FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0012.PDF
DEFENCE IAE buys Elbit's Halo TEL AVIV • The Israeli Air Force is to instal Elbit's Halo advanced avionics system in its Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters. The Halo system was devel oped to enable helicopters to employ high-speed nap-of- the-earth tactics at night and in adverse weather, avoiding both natural obstacles and enemy defences. The system integrates three main compo nents: night-vision goggles (NVG) with Hud-type symbology, plus a Doppler/ ground-positioning system from Navstar satellite for position accuracy to within 50ft. The NVG has basic flight- information symbology dis played Hud-style at infinity in the goggles, which weigh 150gm and have a 32° x 24° field of view. The symbology is basic, providing height, heading, speed, artificial horizon, slip ball, and rate of climb/descent, plus a radar warning receiver alert caption. The Doppler/GPS feeds two multifunction head-down displays showing track and waypoints, and with a third input from a database loaded into the dual-redundant navi gation computers before take off. This database contains the position of natural and manmade hazards such as high ground and power lines, and can also be programmed with the latest intelligence on enemy threat dispositions. This facility, says Elbit, is based on operational experi ence from pilot debriefing, from which it is clear that most helicopter losses occur because of collisions with obstacles or encounters with hostile environments, the location of which was known but was not disseminated at user level. The intelligence/obstacle database, with the accurate navigation kit, offers the pilot ample warning of proximity to threat. It is displayed on the HDDs in symbolic map format, eliminating the need for expensive digital maps. The total weight of the Halo system's six line- replaceable units is 62kg (although a miniaturised vari ant, weighing 48kg, is avail able), and the total power requirement is 380W at 115V and 205W at 28V. Elbit says that Halo has already been exported to an unnamed customer. Flight believes that this customer might be the United States Special Forces. South Africa opens new base PRETORIA South Africa has declared operational a new airbase in the northern Transvaal. AFB Louis Trichardt was formally opened in October last year, but received its first squadron on January 1. The first unit at the new base is 5Sqn, newly reactivated with the Atlas Cheetah canard- modified Mirage III. The squadron will operate both single- and two-seat Cheetahs in the air defence role. Puma and Alouette III squadrons are expected to be based at Louis Trichardt later this year. Flight understands that the base is extremely modern and follows the Israeli principle first used at AFB Hoedspruit, built in the early 1980s. The aircraft are housed in widely dispersed concrete shelters, and several take-off and land ing runs are available on the base's ultra-wide roads and taxiways. • Most of South Africa's military research and devel opment flying has been re located from AFB Water- kloof, near Pretoria, to a new base at Cape Aguilas east of Cape Town. The new base has an adjacent coastal weapons range. US Navy receives first S-3B NAS CECIL FIELD Lockheed Aeronautical Sys tems Company (Lasc) handed over the first S-3 Viking modified to the new B-model configuration to the US Navy on December 17. The carrier-borne anti-sub marine-warfare aircraft was one of VS-27's ten aircraft, and has been under modifi cation by Lasc since July. Lockheed received the initial S-3B contract in 1981, to re- equip the Viking with a new acoustic processor, a new elec tronic support measures system, target imaging radar, a new electronic counter- measures suite, and the means to launch the Harpoon anti- ship missile. Tl and LTV form anti tank team DALLAS ~ Texas Instruments and LTV have teamed for a forth coming US Army competition to produce a new anti-tank weapon system. The Dallas duo will compete for the kinetic energy missile (Kem) portion of the Advanced Anti-tank Weapon System—Heavy (AAWS-H). The candidate system con sists of LTV's Hypervelocity Missile (HVM) and TI's Modular Target Acquisition System (Mtas) and fire control system. The equip ment will be integrated by LTV on a modified Bradley infantry fighting vehicle tracked chassis. The HVM flies at 5,000ft/sec and relies on the kinetic energy of a direct impact, rather than a warhead, to destroy targets. The HVM is considerably cheaper to produce than conventional missiles, says LTV. TI's Mtas is able to find and automatically engage multiple long-range targets simultaneously. The reload ing of missiles will be auto matic. Elbit's Halo Hud on NVG will give pilots a view like this, enabling night nap-of-the-earth flight !i> FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 2/9 January 1988
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
