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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 2059.PDF
TECHNICAL: DEFENCE jm The US Navy is to test fire Hellfire missiles from its SES 200 surface effects ship Hellfire improvements studied Rockwell International is to study an improved Hellfire missile that could become the baseline weapon for the US Army's LHX light-attack helicopter. The Army, meanwhile, is to test Hellfire's effectiveness as an air-to-air weapon, so avoiding the need for anti-tank helicopters such as LHX and the present AH-64 Apache to carry self- defence missiles such as Stinger. Under an almost $1 million contract, Rockwell is to develop conceptual designs for an "opti mised" Hellfire that would be smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the current weapon. The existing laser seeker's resistance to countermeasures will be increased, and the optimised missile will accommodate the millimetre-wave radar seekers for use with their airborne adverse-weather weapon system to be fitted to AH-64s. Other changes include the introduction of a tandem war head, to cope with reactive tank armour, an externally program mable electronic fuze, and digital autopilot. The Hellfire study will last eight months. In a separate move, Rockwell is negotiating with Emerson Electric to develop a version of the latter's HELITOW helicopter missile system able to fire Hell fire. HELITOW is designed for use with wire-guided TOW missiles. The ability to fire laser- guided Hellfire will be achieved by installing a Litton laser desig nator in the sight. A prototype HELITOW Hell fire will be ready for testing later this year, the team says, and 12 countries have been identified as possible candidates for the system. HELITOW is installed on several helicopter types includ ing the Agusta A.129. One potential customer is Sweden, which operates HELI- TOW-equipped MBB BO. 105s and has just started receiving Hellfire anti-ship missiles for a shore-defence system, the RBS-17. Rockwell is delivering subsections for 700 missiles to Bofors for final assembly and installation of the delayed-action blast-fragmentation anti-ship warhead. Test launches will begin later this year. • Rockwell's AGM-130 stand off weapon, a rocket-boosted version of the GBU-15 glide bomb, has completed devel opment flight tests and is to begin nine initial operational test launches this month. There will be five launches from an F-4 and four from an F-lll. The US Air Force has re instated the AGM-130 in its stand-off weapon master-plan, Rockwell understands, but will have to take money from other programmes for production. D Reworked CF-5s near completion Bristol Aerospace will com plete the first reworked Canadian Forces Northrop CF-5 in August, in a major programme to prepare the aircraft for its new role as the lead-in trainer to Canada's McDonnell Douglas CF-18 fighter. The CF-5s are being com pletely stripped and inspected. Their fuselage dorsal longerons are being replaced, their wings and fins repaired, and the aircraft are being reskinned to extend their lives. New wiring and digital avionics will be installed later. The new avionics include a Ferranti headup display and weapons aiming computer with up-front controller and video recording, a Litton LN-93 laser inertial navigator, and digital airdata computer, all connected by 1553B databus. Q Belgium selects Collins system The Belgian Army aero-mobility programme has selected Collins Avionics' man agement system, including auto matic target handover system, as well as communication and navi gation equipment. The exact value of the deal, which is being arranged in partnership with Alcatel Bell Telephone in Belgium, is still to be negotiated. Deliveries will begin in 1991 for installation on Augusta A. 109 helicopters. • STC claims GPS lead STC claims to have developed the smallest", most advanced global positioning system (GPS) receiver for military aircraft. The quarter-ATR-sized STR2500, five-channel precision-code receiver has completed trials and is ready for production, the UK company says. The first application is an inte grated inertial/GPS navigation system developed jointly with Litton Italia. The LISA-6000, which combines STC's GPS receiver with Lital's strapdown inertial platform, was chosen by the General Dynamics-led consortium which unsuccessfully bid for the NATO modular stand-off weapon (MSOW) programme. The STR2500 is STC's third generation of GPS receiver since development started in 1977. A eighth-ATR second-generation receiver using large-scale integ rated circuits and ADA software was tested in 1983/84. STC's latest receiver uses very-large- scale integration to reduce size still further. To produce the LISA-6000, STC's GPS module (three circuit cards) has been integrated •into Lital's LISA-4000 strapdown atti tude and heading reference system. The resulting 7kg unit has navigation performance similar to full inertial systems weighing two to three times as much, says STC. Engineering prototypes of the LISA-6000 have been on test for over a year, and the equipment is shortly to begin flight trials. STC, meanwhile, has signed an agree ment licensing Rockwell-Collins to produce its GPS antenna control unit in the USA. The device is for use with a controlled reception pattern antenna—a seven-element array which is able to create reception "nulls" to overcome jamming. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1 July 1989 17
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