FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2002
2002 - 3314.PDF
Targeting NOWHERE TO HIDE As precision-guided weapons improve with each conflict, so do defences. But there may not be sanctuary against a new US initiative PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC Precision-guided weapons (PGM) have made a quantum leap in capability since the first Paveway laser-guided bombs (LGBs) were used in Vietnam 30 years ago. But while technology advances with each successive conflict, so do enemy counter tactics. Iraq in 1991 took full advantage of cover of darkness to move and fire its Scud missiles with virtual impunity, while eight years later adverse weather sheltered Serbian forces in Kosovo from all but the latest generation of GPS satellite naviga tion-guided weaponry. More recently, Taliban vehicles relied on speed and manoeuvrability to try and dodge allied air attacks. Now, thanks to a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstration, agility and mother nature may no longer provide sanctuary in the next war. The Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement (AMSTE) programme was launched following allied combat experi ence in the Balkans, where mobility and short dwell times made targets difficult to destroy. Among the PGMs available today, LGBs are capable of hitting a moving target, but require clear skies and close-in weapon delivery. While GPS-guided weapons such as the Boeing GBU-31/32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) are immune to bad weather, they are confined to static targets. The only other possible solution, the acoustic/Infrared-guided Northrop Grumman Brilliant Anti-Armour submunition, was effectively killed by Congress in the latest defence bill. AMSTE is not a weapon, but a network. It harnesses current intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, fuses their ground moving-target indicator (GMTI) data to form a single integrated pic ture and datalinks a continual feed of target ing updates to GPS/intertial navigation (INS)-guided weapons already in flight. Target tracking "AMSTE can track a target nominated for engagement and maintain positive control until a weapon is in place to engage it. This is not as easy a task as one might believe on a battlefield where you have random posi tions, confusion over high-density traffic and ISR platforms that don't always have line of Sight," says Chuck Taylor, DARPA AMSTE programme manager. At least two GMTI radars are required to generate a cross reference or bi-lateration radar track. During the initial competitive phase in 2001, Raytheon employed an ASARS-2A-equipped Lockheed Martin U-2 A Grumman F-14Ds (left) test- dropped JDAMs from 20,000ft on moving targets using data provided by E-8C and One-Eleven testbeds and Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle (UAV) sen sors. The rival Northrop Grumman team, which was later to emerge as the winner, has used a combination of E-8C Joint Stand-off Targeting Attack Radar Systems (JSTARS) with modified software and addi tional communications, together with the company's BAC One-Eleven Joint Strike Fighter GSF) radar testbed. In addition to serving as a JSF surrogate in the GMTI forward-looking mode, the One-Eleven radar was modified this year to look sideways to simulate the planned future Global Hawk equipped with an elec tronically scanned array. Under the US Air Force's Multi Platform-Radar Technology Insertion Programme (MP-RTIP), scalable phased- array antennas will be fitted to the high-altitude RQ-4A and the planned Spiral One variant of the Boeing 767-400- based Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC'A) that will eventually suc ceed JSTARS from around 2012. While future strike aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF and Lockheed Martin/Boeing F/A-22 Raptor will have GMTI radar modes that promise to work well in the final stages of an engagement, neither is ideal for fully exploiting AMSTE's stand-off tracking capability. "MP-RTIP will right away be able to implement AMSTE, and when you're talking about bi- lateration using two GMTI radars to create a precise location for weapon quality track ing, Global Hawk teamed with JSTARS is probably ideal," says Bill McCall, Northrop Grumman AMSTE programme manager. AMSTE not only lends itself to a range of current and future ISR platforms and sen sors, the system's other major selling point is its ability to use adapted GPS/INS weaponry already in the USAF and US Navy arsenal or under development. The demon stration to date has logged six separate weapon drops since the summer of 2001, all of them successful engagements with a 10m (33ft) circular error of probability, according to DARPA. During the competitive phase, the Northrop Grumman and Raytheon teams employed the Lockheed Martin Precision Direct Attack Munition and a modified Raytheon AGM-65 Maverick mis sile, respectively. The former is a seekerless, winged bomb that until recently was a clas sified experimental development (Flight International, 15-21 January). DARPA and Northrop Grumman have since expanded testing against remotely controlled targets to include single and mul tiple 900kg (2,0001b) JDAM drops from Grumman F-14D Tomcat and Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, respectively. The F-14D demonstration on 30 September was con ducted from a height of 20,000ft (6,100m) and a range of 11km (6nm), simultaneously 38 12-18 NOVEMBER 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightintemational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
