Technology Update
January/February 2002
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Kollsman provides enhanced vision
 A sequence of illustrations from a Gulfstream aircraft demonstrate Kollsman's enhanced vision system's (EVS) capabilities at night in mountainous terrain. |
The FAA has recently granted Kollsman Avionics certification for its All Weather Window enhanced vision system (EVS). Developed with Gulfstream Aerospace, Kollsman's infrared-based vision system offers pilots a real-time, fully independent tool that will significantly improve approach and reduce the impact of weather on flight.
The system, which has been certified for the Gulfstream V, employs a special infrared sensor (developed in collaboration with Opgal Optronics) that presents an image projected on a head-up display, providing the pilot with a forward-looking infrared picture overlaying the outside view. The system allows the pilot to detect lights and ground features (e.g., as runways, aircraft, and buildings) at night and in low-visibility conditions. It has minimal training requirements and no database or infrastructure requirements.
- Frank Bokulich
Next-generation EA-6B makes maiden flight
 The EA-6B is undergoing several enhancements to its radar jamming systems and capabilities under the U.S. Navy's ICAP III program. |
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s first Increased Capability III EA-6B Prowler aircraft was successfully flown for 1 h, 45 min in mid-November. The aircraft is one of two prototypes being modified by the company's Integrated Systems Sector under a $200 million development program for the U.S. Navy's ICAP III evaluation. The two ICAP III test aircraft will be sent to the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, MD, for the flight-test program. The second prototype is expected to fly early this year.
"Prowlers will be serving the nation through 2015, and the aircraft to follow it will fly for decades," said Philip Teel, Sector Vice President of Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems. "They all will have ICAP III as their electronic attack weapon."
Prowlers are currently being operated by the U.S. Navy, Marines, and Air Force. The carrier-based aircraft is designed to electronically jam radar and communication systems. Prowlers can also physically destroy those systems using high-speed antiradiation missiles.
Current Prowlers jam radar by transmitting electronic signals over broad frequency ranges to "blind" adversary radars operating within each range. ICAP III takes that energy and focuses it on the specific frequency of the threat radar. Sophisticated software in ICAP III enables the system to change the jamming frequency as quickly as modern radars change theirs to avoid jamming.
Other ICAP III improvements include an integrated communications jamming system, a provision for the Navy's Link 16 data link, and new displays and controls. Plans call for the system to be installed in the military's current fleet EA-6B aircraft.
- Frank Bokulich
