News>Test and evaluation team helps lead effort in KC-135 defense system possibilities
Photos
James Shilling, Raymond Berhalter and Lt. Col. Randall Sealy look at a Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures pod attached to a KC-135 Stratotanker on the flightline March 1, 2011, at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. The pod is a laser-based countermeasures system designed to detect and employ countermeasures against infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles. Mr. Shilling is the LAIRCM system manager for Northrop-Grumman in Chicago, Mr. Berhalter is the program manager at the KC-135 System Program Office at Tinker AFB, Okla., and Colonel Sealy is the tanker test manager and chief of the Air Mobility Command Aircraft Test Management Branch. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol)
A Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures system pod is attached to a KC-135 Stratotanker on the flightline March 1, 2011, at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. The pod is a laser-based countermeasures system designed to detect and employ countermeasures against infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol)
by Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
3/15/2011 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) -- In a combined effort between Air Mobility Command, Air National Guard, the KC-135 Stratotanker System Program Office, Northrop-Grumman officials and other agencies, for the first time a KC-135 Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures-based pod defensive system is becoming a reality.
The pod, called the Guardian System by maker Northrop-Grumman, is a laser-based countermeasures system being designed to detect, provide warning of and employ countermeasures against infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles.
Performed as a risk-reduction engineering study, the installation on the KC-135 consisted of a typical distributed LAIRCM system where all the system components were installed throughout the aircraft -- permanently, according to officials from AMC's Test and Evaluation Division.
"Distributed systems commonly have high cost and weight penalties associated with them, and on a mission as critical as air refueling, every drop of fuel over the fight counts," said Lt. Col. Randall Sealy, the tanker test manager and chief of AMC Aircraft Test Management Branch.
With that in mind, the KC-135 LAIRCM team made the LAIRCM system portable, modular and transferable.
"The tanker could then maximize capabilities while minimizing risk," Colonel Sealy said. "In today's environment, flexibility really is the key to airpower."
The operational concept for pod operation is for a modified KC-135 to have an 'A kit', Colonel Sealy said. "This kit includes an adapter plate, associated wiring and operator controls. Based on mission requirements, the pod can then be attached as required. The pod is intended to provide adequate infrared countermeasures for departure, descent and approach for the KC-135."
Once it's on the plane, the Guardian System LAIRCM pod "is an encased system of sensors software and a laser tracker that can identify infrared ground-based missile threats, sense them, track them and then defeat them using a laser to spoof the missile off course," according to 95th Air Base Wing officials at Edwards AFB, Calif., where some of the LAIRCM testing has been done.
Raymond Berhalter, the program manager at the KC-135 System Program Office at Tinker AFB, Okla., said the current testing of the KC-135 LAIRCM "was always designed to be a suitability evaluation."
"If this does become a true and active program, there's a significant amount of testing and documentation that needs to be done," Mr. Berhalter said. "Right now, this is a demonstration of a previously developed system."
Several tests on the "suitability" of the LAIRCM pod aboard the KC-135, to include an operational utility evaluation, have been completed already, Colonel Sealy said. In addition to officials from the Air National Guard-Air Force Reserve Command Test Center, the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB and the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center KC-135 System Program Office performed an electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility test on the pod, as well as a flight demonstration for safety of flight and handling characteristics.
Members of the 46th Training Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla., using operational aircrews and a KC-135 from the Kansas Air National Guard's 190th Air Refueling Wing at Forbes Field in Topeka, conducted open-air range testing of the pod's effectiveness with a ground-based Mallina missile plume simulator to measure the pod's response.
James Shilling, the LAIRCM program manager from Northrop-Grumman of Chicago, which developed the system, said the pod did very well in all its tests.
"We were very pleased with the data we've received," Mr. Shilling said. "Overall, everything we've seen thus far has been very positive. We've accomplished the operational testing, design testing, and soon we are going to fly into theater on an aeromedical evacuation mission using the pod.
"We've received very positive feedback from the flight crews -- there were no noticeable handling characteristics that were detrimental to flight," Mr. Shilling added. "The receiver pilots saw no effects that would prevent them from refueling. We flew two (receiver) aircraft out of Edwards (AFB) -- they reported no problems. At the Eglin (AFB) test range...the system performed as it was designed and we were again, very pleased."
The Guardian System LAIRCM pod was originally developed with the help of the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Shilling said.
"The government gets to reap the benefit from that program because an immense amount of work has already been done," he said. "We know that LAIRCM works, and we know it works in a pod. We accumulated nearly 24,000 operating hours and almost 4,800 sorties while flying in the DHS program, so we know the system works. That's what (the Air Force) gets to take advantage of -- you get all that data at no cost to you."
In addition to cost savings from design and development work already done by Northrop-Grumman and the DHS, Mr. Shilling said the other advantage of the Guardian System is its "portability." The pod version of LAIRCM could provide adequate protection for the KC-135, or other aircraft at a substantially lower cost over a typical distributed version.
"We can literally roll it under the airplane and install it in under 10 minutes," Mr. Shilling said. "And it doesn't care which airplane it goes on. So, the KC-135 can be flying its mission in all the countries it needs to operate, but then if you have another modified airplane going into harm's way, then all we have to do is remove it from the (KC)-135 and place it on the other aircraft to protect it."
Comments
3/18/2011 2:41:19 AM ET Stick to weather briefs.
IB, Altus
3/16/2011 6:41:06 AM ET Wow that only took 50 years fellas but I guess better late than never. Would have felt better in 2001 and 2003 with that onboard.
