Preliminary Design of Advanced Counter-Air System

By the early 21st century the counter-air threat force in the low air arena will have grown substantially in terms of numbers of systems and their capabilities. The threat force is presumed to continue to rely on vertical lift aircraft to defend their rear areas and counter the helicopter forces of the west. These threat forces will use routes that circumvent the air defenses of the main battle, strike priority ground objectives, and conduct air assault operations in support of Division objectives. Current literature indicates development of advanced close support and counter-air helicopter threats including the Hokum. The objective of this study was to investigate, define, and evaluate potential concepts for technology and material to conduct air-to-air combat in various aircraft. The study included five specified work tasks, however this paper addresses the forth task defined as formulation of an air-to-air system conceptual design. Consideration is given to parametric evaluation inclusive of target acquisition systems, weapons systems, C3I architecture system, platform configuration and propulsion, avionics, other mission equipment, and survivability features. Air vehicle concepts IBM investigated included advanced single and co-axial rotor helicopters and tilt rotor aircraft designs.