Emc Impacts Regarding Avionics Upgrades to U.S. Army Helicopters

The current fleet of U.S. Army rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft is undergoing significant avionics upgrades. These upgrades have greater impacts than simply reducing crew workload. Utilizing state of the art technology, they are required to operate in a radio frequency environment that is becoming more powerful and increasingly congested. Unique integration problems arise from the introduction of high-speed digital electronics onto airframes that were designed, in most cases, 30 or more years ago. The intent of this paper is to draw the fundamental conclusion that, as systems become increasingly more autonomous, additional testing is required to characterize their operational scenarios, as opposed to the current trend towards reducing testing. This conclusion is achieved by providing specific EMC examples regarding the increasing vulnerability of systems as they transition from analog to high-speed digital circuitry.