Aircraft Survivability Advances Against Hard to Detect Small Arms, RPG and MANPADS Threats

Low altitude tactical aviation platforms, by the nature of their mission, expose themselves to the full-spectrum of employed threat weapons, from small arms and rocket propelled grenades to MANPADS. The challenge has been to find a balance between installed threat countermeasures and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) that minimizes the effectiveness of the threats while still enabling a high success rate of the aircraft completing its mission. Under the Intelligent Decision-aiding for Aircraft Survivability (IDAS) program, threat warning sensors to detect and locate small arms fire were enhanced to provide rocket propelled grenade (RPG) and rocket fire capability. Laser warning sensors were enhanced to provide the precise angle of arrival capability needed to accurately locate laser designator threats. The IDAS program developed a lightweight multi-band laser jammer to counter MANPADS threats at half the weight of the current ATIRCM Multi-Band Laser, and with the added capability to now locate otherwise, hard to detect small arms and RPG threats, further incorporated a multi-color visual laser dazzler into the laser unit as a non-lethal countermeasure to these threats. These threat warning and active countermeasure components were integrated through the Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) Gen III Electronic Control Unit (ECU). This aircraft survivability equipment system was then integrated into an Apache for operational demonstration. In particular, the Apache IHADSS system was modified to generate threat symbology in the helmet display that uniquely identifies the threat type and location of small arms, RPG, rocket, and laser designator threats. The aircrew is then able to rapidly put eyes on target and determine the appropriate countermeasure – non-lethal dazzling, or lethal counter-fire. This system was extensively demonstrated at Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG) against multiple small arms, RPG and MANPADS simulator threats. This paper will discuss the unclassified details of the IDAS suite elements, the integration of these elements into the Apache aircraft, the unclassified test results from the YPG demonstration, and follow on programs that benefitted from IDAS development work.