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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 0081.PDF
TECHNICAL: DEFENCE LDS deployed on the bridge of the Armilla Patrol's HMS Beaver GSH twin-barrel cannon which fires 55 rounds a second. The avionic system will allow for future weapons systems upgrades. The prototypes are to be powered by the General Electric F404 engine, but this will be replaced later with the GTX- 35VS engine being designed by India's Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), Ban galore. Flat-rated to achieve Mach 0.8 at sea level in ISA+30°C conditions, the engine will have high afterburner thrust. It has a five-stage, 393- blade compressor with variable geometry and a pressure ratio of 6.5:1. The afterburner system is a mixed-flow, low-bypass-ration augmented type. India's homegrown aircraft in dustry has not produced a fighter aircraft since the half-hearted at tempt in the 1960s of the HF-24. The LCA programme required a new team to be assembled and design and manufacturing capability to be greatly en hanced. An IBM 3090 computer is used for computer-aided design and manufacture. Com puter simulations have been used for defining the LCA systems architecture. The GTRE can test major engine components such as compressor, combuster, turbine and afterburner. A full-scale engine-test establishment has been set up, able to test up to 15,000kg engine thrust with afterburner and incorporating automatic data acquisition. A version of the LCA is being studied for operation on India's first indigenous aircraft carrier. The ship is in the planning stage and is scheduled to go to sea in the late 1990s. France is aiding India in the design of a 30,000-35,000t vessel, following the award of a study contract last year to the General Armaments Delegation's Naval Construction Directorate, based in Paris. The carrier would replace the Navy's Viferant, while a second indigenous carrier would replace the Viraat (for merly the British Royal Navy's HMS Hermes). Several options for aircraft op eration are being studied for the Indian carrier requirement, including ski-jumps, catapaults and ski-jumps combined with catapaults. • RN laser range 5kr Laser dazzle sights (LDSs), de-^ ployed by the Royal Navy (RN) and designed to confuse and dazzle pilots of attacking aircraft, are thought to have an effective range of around 5km. An RAF pilot briefed on the LDS says that its effective range is "well in excess" of the 1.5km/ 2,000ft (600m) avoidance bubble used by RAF aircraft when operating near those RN ships with which they are not in direct contact. Deployed on RN vessels of the Armilla Patrol in the Persian Gulf, LDSs may have been in service for up to seven years with the Navy. The lasers may have been used during the Falklands/ Malvinas conflict in 1982. Reports that vessels in the Falklands and the Caribbean are also carying LDSs may indicate an RN policy of having the de vices fitted to any ship in a potential danger-zone. Type 22 and Leander-class frigates nor mally carry two LDSs. Invin cible-class aircraft carriers and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships may also have carried the system. The laser dazzle sights were apparently developed from industrial lasers and are quite primitive in concept, being man ually aimed and deployed on improvised stands such as tri pods. The laser is believed to be in the blue spectrum and to operate in a beam mode. Reports in the UK indicate that the LDS was developed jointly by the Ministry of Defence's Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Malvern and the Admiralty Research Establishment. The disclosure that RN ships are carrying the LDSs has achieved prominence because of the effect the laser device has on the eyesight of the target. The USA and the Soviet Union have agreed to avoid the use of lasers during naval exercises following US allegations that its aircraft had been fired at by Soviet ship-deployed lasers during routine patrols. The allegations, of which the most recent was made last year, were denied by the Soviet Union. Lasers produce beams of monochromatic light which are highly collimated and intense. The power of the beam is depen dent on the frequency, power output and the atmosphere. Performance drops with increas ing water density in the atmosphere. The human eye can focus the collimated beams of some lasers and can concentrate this energy on the retina. The eye can there fore be damaged at a consid erable distance from the laser source. The range within which a laser can be hazardous to eyesight— the nominal ocular hazard dis tance (NOHD)—depends on the received power of the beam, measured in candellas/m2. NOHD calculations do not take into account atmospheric conditions. The power of the beam can also be magnified by optical instruments. Countermeasures to protect pilots from the effects of such devices as the RN's LDS can be provided by visors or goggles which have the required optical density at the laser wavelength. • NEWS IN BRIEF Vinten Military Systems has delivered the first super VHS- C airboume video cassette re corder to British Aerospace for installation in a Harrier GR7 development aircraft at Dunsfold. NEW MAVERICK SEEKS USAF APPRO VAL A brassboard millimetre-wave radar seeker for the latest in Hughes Aircraft's Maverick air-to-surface missile series, believed to be the AGM- 65H, is checked during software evaluation. The 24cm-diameter seeker -was designed and built by Hughes for evaluation by the US Air Force under a captive and free-flight test contract. The demonstration programme is managld by Hughes's Munitions Systems division at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 17-23 January 1990 23
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