Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 - (Page 80)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 BAE Seeks Remote Guardian Platforms With flight-testing of BAE Systems’ Remote Guardian all-quadrant defensive gun system under the Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor already underway, BAE Systems Platform Solutions is eyeing other potential platforms for the weapon, including the Boeing CH-47 and Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters. “They need the same capability,” says Sean Bond, president of BAE’s Platform Solutions division. The remotely operated weapon, with a 360° field of fire, is being tested on a U.S. Air Force specialoperations CV-22, but the U.S. Marine Corps has also ordered a small number to equip its MV-22s. The system is expected to be operational by year-end. “We’re doing the same thing as on the B-36 Peacemaker bomber some 60 years ago,” said Bond. But this time it’s much more clever. The V-22 has two massive, turning rotors. It has a retractable landing gear that might be in the ‘down’ position, and it can carry underslung loads. A 360° field of fire gun could cause some serious self-inflicted wounds. But that won’t happen with Remote Guardian. Wired into the aircraft’s systems, it knows where the rotors are, whether the wheels are up or down, and interrupts itself accordingly. All the fire control soldier has to do is shoot away with gay abandon on his Play Station-like console. This means the control Remote Guardian mounted on a V-22 Osprey. from the bottom of the aircraft and is operated by a video game-like handheld controller. “Mankind has developed a skill set that makes this type of solution Remote Guardian features a modular architecture. practical,” says Bond. The weapon is government furtechnology must be a high integrity system equal in quality to a flight nished equipment of the user’s control system or an engine control choice. So far it has been a 7.62 mm system, says Bond. “You cannot minigun, but a modular approach means a 50-caliber gun or some afford a failure.” Remote Guardian is a retractable other type of device that needs to defensive gun system that deploys be directed and targeted with pre- Q-Sight Is a Lightweight Alternative to HUD Intended primarily for helicopters but adaptable to fixed-wing aircraft too, BAE Systems’ Q-Sight ultralight helmet-mounted display system is designed to emulate head up displays with nothing more than a plug-and-play ‘monocle.’ It’s another example of BAE System’s U.S.-based Platform Solutions developing a product on its own funds after believing it had identified a market opportunity, says Sean Bond, president of the Johnson City, New York-based company. Traditional HUDs are heavy and take up a lot space, says Bond. “We decided to take a quantum leap (hence Q-Sight) using waveguide optics feeding holographic images up the edge of a piece of glass, and with some incredible smarts have the light stop at the right place so that looking through it you see the imagery necessary for a head up display. “It’s a dramatic transformation in the way that we can deliver HUD capabilities because now we don’t need all the traditional optics.” Less volume, less power, less weight, says Bond. And less cost. “It’s clip-on, and it is something you can truly flip in front of a soldier’s eye.” Platform Solutions has several systems out on test, but is still awaiting its first order. Q-Sight uses the same electronic feed as a traditional HUD “but with much less ‘volume’” said Bond. “The interface is the same. “The big difference is we’ve taken out all of the mirrors, all of the objects, the focal lengths that are necessary in today’s systems. We’ve now made it so you simply project the data up the edge of the glass. The ability to deliver a headup display capability with a little piece of glass is quite compelling.” —John Morris Q-Sight’s up-mounted ‘monocle.’ cision can be fitted. Bond said Remote Guardian was selected through a competitive bid after Platform Solutions had earlier identified “a shortfall in capability” in the V-22—in other words, the military had forgotten to ask for a gun on it to provide all-quadrant defensive fire. “In 2005 we initiated a series of technical meetings with the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy, and within a week began full scale development,” said Bond. “We unveiled our system a little over a year later and when they saw it, they recognized this was the capability that they needed on the V-22.” “Two months later we submitted a competitive proposal to Special Operations Command and within a week we had won.” The story is unusual—though increasingly less so—in that private industry identified a military need as a marketing opportunity and developed the solution at its own expense. “Having a strong commercial portfolio means that I have certain business models and philosophies that enable me to survive in the Darwinian commercial market,” says Bond. “If I apply those same skills to the military market, if we build it and we build the right thing, the end user will want it, and instead of going through a lengthy development program we’ll be able to provide something that is off-theshelf, or nearly so.” —John Morris 80 July 14, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 Contents Thirty More Years CFM Reveals New Engine Boeing Reduces Forecast UAVs’ Quiet Revolution Finmeccanica: U.S. Success A Plethora of AESAs BAE North America Plus L-3 Becomes a Prime Better Late Than Never A Peek Behind the Curtain China’s J-10 Revealed Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Breaking LM’s Hegemony

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.