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| In February 2014, the aircrew of an F/A-18 Super Hornet carrying the Navy’s infrared search and track (IRST) system, inspects the aircraft before the first flight with the pod at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. IRST reached a critical milestone Dec. 2, authorizing low-rate initial production of the sensor pod system. (Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin) |
Friday, December 05, 2014
Infrared Search and Track System achieves Milestone C approval
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ReplyDeleteFun punishments in Russian Army – according to “performance” it is not hard to understand for what the relevant soldier was punished.
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Bggggg.
As a side issue, note that Lockheed's IRST has achieved a critical Milestone C production decision authorizing low-rate initial production (LRIP), three plus years after its Milestone B development decision. That's the way it should happen. Contrast that with Lockheed's lagging F-35 program where extensive LRIP is ongoing five years before Milestone C which Frank Kendall the Pentagon guru has labelled "acquisition malpractice."
ReplyDeletejust wondering, if they can fit IRST on a fuel tank like this, why dont they just put it on the aircraft's body instead ?
ReplyDeleteUnless they are hunting cruise missiles, the IRST is on the wrong (lower) side of the nose. The F/A-18E has such miserable altitude performance that it is in 'look up' on virtually every threat above 20K.
DeleteWhich is to say: Every threat which is serious about BVR.
I am curious about what band it's using. My understanding was that the original AAS-38 (Nite Hawk) etc. targeting pods used long wave (8-12u) IR and the newer ASQ-228 (ATFLIR) use midwave (3-5u). If so, what purpose does the IRST serve as I thought they were all mid-wave from the start, due to atmospheric propogation windows and spectrum sensitivity (hot target) issues?
It would also be nice to know if these systems can functionally act with the MSI setup for mixed sensor cues and handoffs. This was possible on the Classic Hornet as long ago as the late-80s when HARM, Radar and TFLIR were coned together to help provide tactical options to the all-active-all-the-time approach of SARH.
Something which had been frowned on after the Swordsman incident when the threat had nothing (the Toms were below the local shorebased radar horizon) but were reacting to the check turns based on (presumably) seeing the Sirena 3 radar warning indications spiral around the front hemisphere.
There are still certain limits of course in looking up from wet, smoggy, hot air for targets well above the nose. But if you have datalink from an APS-18 equipped Hawkeye, you should be able to steer under/around the nose radar arc using offensive split tactics.
I would suggest that this may be seen as a necessary condition with the advent of the much higher boost capability Blk.III AIM-9X and the F414 EPE to provide expanded datalink servicing potential as a trans-merge weapon (Hornets cannot load AMRAAM on the tips).
But if so, _WHY_ is the seeker mounted in the belly tank?!?!
The sensor was developed from the F-14 TCS system from back in the day. The IRST system is integrated with MSI, and is optimized for A-A (ATFLIR can be used for A-A, but is really an A-G system. The seeker is mounted to the belly tank for several reasons, mostly it shortens the development time, doesn't require depot level mx to install, and allows the sensor to be swapped between aircraft (fewer systems need to be acquired,) thus cheaper. If the USAF was developing it, it would cost 3x as much, and take 3x as long.... Anyway, the ASH has the sensor integrated into the fuse, so it may be a mod that you will see down the road.
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