Upgrade Helps Pilots Focus

GTRI engineers automated the electronic-warfare systems that help protect military aircraft, like the F-16, from hostile fire.Pilots of many U.S. combat jets can now fly with greater security and reduced in-flight workload, thanks to the recent automation of several electronic warfare (EW) systems.

The automation enables a suite of threat-response systems to work together, automatically, protecting the aircraft from hostile action without requiring the pilot’s involvement. The upgrade, now operational on the F-16 and the A-10, was developed by a research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

“The pilot’s real job is to fly the plane and to accomplish his mission,” says Mike Willis, a GTRI principal research engineer who participated in the project. “If he also has to monitor and manually control the state of all of the electronic warfare equipment, he really has a lot to do.”

Yet, Willis explains, that was formerly the case. Combat aircraft typically carried multiple EW systems, often including a radar warning receiver, a missile warning system, a pod for jamming enemy signals, and a protective chaff-and-flare dispenser. Each system was separately monitored and operated by the pilot.

In the 1990s, the Air Force adopted the AN/ALQ- 213(V), a central controller that took information from the individual EW systems and processed it in a coordinated manner. But, even with the ALQ-213, the EW systems were still manually operated.

Today, a pilot can turn a knob on the ALQ-213 and the controller will automatically monitor and operate the aircraft’s entire EW suite, including the ALR-69 radar warning receiver, the ALQ-131 or ALQ- 184 active jamming pods, and – on the A-10 – the AAR-47 missile warning system that provides a warning about shoulder-launched weapons. If the upgraded ALQ-213 detects an immediate threat, it can activate the ALE-47 chaff-and-flare dispenser without pilot involvement.

“The new automation is the result of algorithms developed over the past decade that we call the threat response processor, or TRP,” Willis states. “This software runs in the ALQ-213 and fully automates the EW decisions that a pilot used to have to make on top of everything else.”

Led by GTRI principal research engineer Bob Beasley, Willis worked with GTRI engineers Byron Coker, Lee Montaña, and Luke Starnes on the TRP automation project. Coker, Montaña, and Starnes have also been extensively involved in research aspects of the deployment of the automated ALQ- 213 in U.S. aircraft.

TRP-enabled units can now be found throughout the F-16 and A-10 fleets. The project was sponsored by the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

Air Force testing indicates that the automated ALQ-213 is doing an effective job of protecting A-10 and F-16 pilots, Willis says. However, when conditions require it, a pilot can still operate the ALQ-213 manually.

Testing of ALQ-213 units running TRP has been enhanced by the addition of the virtual electronic combat training system (VECTS) into the ALQ-213. VECTS, developed by a GTRI team led by principal research scientist Linda Viney, simulates realistic enemy threats on an aircraft’s actual cockpit displays.

VECTS also simulates accurate defensive responses, such as electronic jamming of enemy signals or maneuvering of the aircraft to avert a threat. Because VECTS is built in, it allows pilots to test the ALQ-213 at their convenience, without the need to fly their aircraft over a ground-based military test range.

GTRI continues to develop further improvements for the ALQ-213. A project now being done under Montaña’s direction seeks to upgrade the unit’s processing capability by adding updated hardware. In turn, that hardware enhancement is expected to give the ALQ-213 the capacity to handle further software upgrades and to offer improved future functionality.

Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, GA
gtri.gatech.edu