Factor del mercat de treball: les exigències del mercat

The fundamental difference between the F-15E Strike Eagle DRF's Hughes AN/APG-70 radar and the models used in the Aardvark and its successors such as Tornado, solid-state though they have become, is the F-15E's SAR capability. Instead of presenting the wizzo with only a real-beam ground map, the traditional and often quite nondescript pie-slice sector scan full of distortion due to perspective, the F-15E's SAR, as its name implies, provides the option of a quality synthetic high-resolution map (HRM).

SAR uses the movement of the aircraft with respect to the target to create the impression that the antenna is larger than it really is (hence synthetic aperture), and all that needs to be done to create it is to fly at 10° or more offset from the area of interest. The radar then 'can get a good look to the side of it a bit'.

Microprocessors then convert the returns into the HRM which features a more or less constant scale along and across track, with the baseline fairly well spread out, giving a true bird of prey's perspective, looking out and down in a plan view format. The end result is akin to a grainy photo presented in eerie green, which is easy to compare with the corresponding moving map (tactical situation display) projected on an adjacent MFD, making extremely light work of identifying waypoints, offsets and the target.

TARGET INGRESS

Stand-off weapons will be central to any future major aerial campaign. The Brunswick LAD depicted here has long since been abandoned, but the emerging range of INT weapons such as Have Slick and J'SOW are not exceedingly different either in concept or appearance. The shorter-winded JDAM more closely resembles a heavily-modified Paveway III LLLGB. (Brunswick)

Maj Dick Brown, USAF Ret., who flew F-lllFs and spent some time on the F-15E programme, pointed out that you can 'pick out a 6 ft man dressed in tin foil at several miles'. Current crewmen reckon that the SAR HRM imagery is so good that, for example, at 40-50 miles away 'you could take a picture of your housing lot, then not only pick out your house, but tell if your car is in the driveway! '

The HRM is obtained by looking at the standard ground map return and picking out an area of interest using something akin to a cropped-shield shape as a reference cursor. The wizzo customarily does this using the right-hand tracking handle (the back-seat 'office' of the F-15E actually features two console-mounted multi-function slew sticks, making it easier for left-handers to operate, and simple for the ambidextrous). The tracking handles feature a transducer switch on top, the so-called 'coolie hat'.

This looks and behaves much like a stick trim button, but acts more akin to a computer mouse in this instance. By pushing it in any given direction, the cursor will move about the radar display.

Once in place and selected (effected by pulling at the trigger Enable bar), the AN/APG-70 will

concentrate its scan on that area for 3-6 seconds, building up the more detailed HRM map of the selected area and then flash it up in expanded format.

This can be done as far as 160 nm (184 miles) to produce an 80 x 80 nm (92 x 92 miles) patch offering a resolution of 1,000 ft; or at ranges of 10 nm (11.5 miles) to produce a 0.67 x 0.67 nm (0.75 x 0.75 miles) patch offering a resolution of 10 ft! This is staggering finesse. Moreover, patch maps can be obtained while executing 4 g manoeuvres, and then frozen for the attack run. This can then be conducted wholly RQ. At the same time, the FUR sensor in the LANTIRN targeting pod is slewed to that area, making it possible for the wizzo to zoom in rapidly, acquire the target and lase it for slant-range, a mini-toss with a Paveway III, or even just to squirt photons at it to dazzle the eyes of flak gunners. Specific targets can be picked out usually at ranges of around 20 miles on radar, permitting pseudo-stealthy attacks closer-in with smart weapons like the proportionally guided Pave way s and even the GBU-15/AGM-130, which are released on cue. Seldom is there much need to use OAPs to help identify targets for straight-in attacks, whatever their merits for general navigation. Clearly, 151

in company with its peers, the F-15E DRF anxiously awaits the operational debut of the new range of stand-off smart weapons and delivery canisters such as JASSM, JSOW and JDAM.

Of course, the F-15E's avionics are totally integrated for the purpose of delivering dumb iron bombs too, using radar, Optronics and the inertial platform for fully automatic, totally uncanned blind weapons deliveries in loft, toss, dive, etc; and in

The F-15E simulator, showing some of the cockpit MFDs in action. The pilot is using an E-scan terrain elevation warning display from LANTIRN, along with stores selection; the back-seat wizzo has (from left to right), tactical situation display, navigation FUR and a frozen HRM SAR ground map, and a radar air-to-air B-scan in operation - very impressive stuff! Israel and Saudi Arabia are to operate the very similar F-151 and F-I5S models of the aircraft, respectively.

(McDonnell Douglas)

conjunction with the HUD for air-to-ground radar-ranged (AGR) visual-aided CCIP bomb runs. A few HOTAS and back-seat switch changes and the whole format changes instantly from one preferred mode to another. All the while, the pilot is presented with comprehensive steering and target-cueing symbology, while the LANTIRN navigation pod can be used to its full effect, combining the best of many BAI and INT technologies already discussed. But woe betide any cavalier pilot who detaches himself from reality by failing to communicate with his back-seater: playing the piccolo (working the multifarious HOTAS switches studded all over the stick and side control handles) in both offices requires complete harmonization. The pilot and his wizzo must be in constant touch via a few choice phrases to coordinate their button-pushing.

A pair of'EF-IIlA Ravens on RAF Upper Heyford's ramp in July 1992. The 42nd ECS contributed aircraft for Gulf War operations along with the 390th ECS, all of which flew under the latter s banner at Taif, Saudi Arabia.

The aircraft have since been pooled under the 429th ECS at Cannon AFB, New Mexico. (Author)

A Raven on the wing over sinuous river mudflats. The aircraft flies on stand-off support, CAS and primary support - deep strike - EW missions, safeguarding its colleagues from the worst ravages of enemy radars by using selective spot-noise jamming in lookthwugfi model. (USAFE)

The Raven's weapons bay was modified to house the 10 exciters which drive the jamming antennae located behind the underfuselage 'canoe' (out of sight here). The Raven is undergoing a SIP update which will expand jamming to 10 wavebands, ranging from early warning through to high-frequency terminal-threat systems in use

by the latest SAMs. (Grumman)

Irrespective of whether the crew coordinate perfectly, computer processing enables each of them to demand information from the single multi-mode radar and the LANTIRN navigation pod's TFR, which are clever enough to channel data to the relevant interchangeable MFDs as demanded. The exception is the LANTIRN FLIR, which can only look in one direction at a time. By convention the pilot relies on the navigation pod's sensor and the back-seater on the targeting pod's. Each then have what they need. This eases coordination on long-range missions where everything has to be kept running smoothly between them all the time. In the single-seat F-16C cockpit, on the other hand, the pilot can do as he wishes but is apt to become overloaded with choice and can end up widely off the mark with his TOTs.

With regard to radar, the same is true to a certain extent. The pilot relies on the Elevation Scan furnished by the LANTIRN navigation pod to provide terrain-warning video (backed up by suitable pull-up and nose-over cues on the HUD, and a fail-safe fly-up system). The navigator uses the Big Eye for various ground-mapping modes and air-to-air B-Scan (fully processed into blips with relevant IFF bars, gladly bereft of ground clutter when looking down). These are presented on the MFDs and synthesized into steering and firing cues on the HUD, when called up on the up-front control panel. The opportunities are virtually limitless, providing a great deal of redundancy for visual bombs, radar bombs, optronic bombs and the redundant fail-safes.

Although the F-15E works on the premise that the 'pilot rows the boat and the wizzo shoots the ducks', the activation of one solitary switch, on the AC's decision, will reconfigure the aircraft completely for air-to-air combat. Radar and radar displays, ordnance stations, everything will suddenly switch over for immediate use. This is another feature which makes the F-15E so different from the F-l 1 IF and Tornado IDS. The now-retired F-l 1 ID did feature limited provisions in this department. And a similar philosophy is being embodied in the Russian Su-34, which features Aardvark-style side-by-side seating with the MFDs and lightly loaded wing of an Eagle-class fighter. The F-15E pilot can command this option and tell his radar-interpreting back-seater to 'get the bogey; forget the bombs, get the fighter'.

The downside is an agitated crew in a high-workload environment. This is principally because F-15E pilots do not yet perform the kind of hands-off terrain-skimming flight that is available to the Aardvark, Tornado IDS and the CIS counterpart, the Su-24 Fencer. Owing to the F-15E's much lighter wing-loading the crew can be tossed about in the cockpit a great deal, especially at low-level or in

mountain turbulence. This can be particularly tough on the back-seater who might be performing delicate tracking movements and switching with his two hand controllers, taking the weight on his elbows while his head is down.

It is a delicate balance which most crews have to resolve on an individual basis, given that their strike objective is the paramount goal. Some prefer the inherent smoothness of the Aardvark and Tornado IDS at low-level (ground-skimming up to 1,000 ft AGL) and their most definite 'WSO union: shut up and drive' philosophy. Others prefer the rough-and-tumble of the F-15E which can readily take advantage of that low loading and manoeuvrability to transform the 'Mud Hen' (one of the F-15E's lesser-known nicknames) into a MiG-killer with the pilot firmly in control at most times - not that INT crews get to mix it up much in reality, owing to the great entourage of Cappers providing a protective umbrella.

Mixing INT and MiG-killing is usually bad news.

The g loading tolerance of modern aircraft, along with their speed and climbing performance is severely hampered by heavy ordnance: far better to dump and run, or turn the fight around, rather than present a sitting target. So, while the Mud Hen can respond to enemy aerial opposition effectively, it must still first jettison its load of air-to-ground weapons - up to 24,500 Ib of tangentially carried ordnance - in order to do so. And, alas, even the simplest of procedures, practised a zillion times during training sorties, can and probably will be forgotten in the heat of battle when the enemy is bringing flak and other lethal weaponry to bear. Focusing on one key task is often the route to success and survivability, even if a fighter possesses the brawn and the know-how to handle the dual-role mission. However, it seems to be the way forward.