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10 Oct 12. Elbit Systems and Northrop Grumman Collaborate in Developing Terrain Following and Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) System to Improve Tactical Low-Level Flight Safety for Military Transport Planes. By opening the night and enabling safe, low-level flight under limited-visibility conditions, the TF/TA system enables tactical transport aircraft to fly in low-level, limited visibility flight conditions using ‘terrain following and avoidance’ profiles. An innovative Terrain Following and Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) system under development at Elbit Systems, in cooperation with Northrop Grumman, will enable pilots to fly and maneuver more safely in Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) flight mode under all weather conditions, day and night. Under the collaborative development, Elbit Systems’ TF/TA head-up display (TA/TF HUD) application is coupled with Northrop Grumman’s AN/APN-241 Terrain Following Radar for an avionic upgrade for existing or new C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. The TF/TA HUD demonstrator is expected to fly within the upcoming year on an international customer’s C-130 Transport Aircraft. The TF/TA system relies on a Digital Terrain Elevation Database and the Terrain Following Radar as an active sensor, driven and controlled by Elbit Systems’ Smart Displays. Implemented as part of a “Glass Cockpit” concept, the system is positioned as a competitive and attractive enhancement for C-130 modernization and upgrading. The system evolved in Elbit Systems’ Futures Lab, the company’s innovation center tasked with rapid prototyping and proof of concept evolving aerospace systems. The TF/TA system has already been selected for integration into an ongoing C-130 upgrade program. Northrop Grumman’s AN/APN-241 radar has been selected as the standard radar for the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules and Alenia C-27J transport aircraft. Additionally, the AN/APN-241 radar has been integrated and installed on the CASA C-295 transport aircraft.
08 Oct 12. The Boeing Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) team recently completed a combined preliminary design review and critical design review with the U.S. Air Force, representing significant milestones for the program. The reviews occurred at the same time the company began internal software deliveries that will enable new capability requirements that were added to the contract earlier this year. These achievements come after the program was converted to a firm-fixed-price contract in late April. The combined design reviews validated design enhancements to add Presidential and National Voice Conferencing (PNVC), which, when complete, will be a worldwide, survivable, secure satellite-based capability used by the president, secretary of defense, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior U.S. national and military leaders for secure communications. The design reviews also covered engineering changes required to synchronize the terminals with changes on the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites. Once operational, FAB-T also will relay the commands that control the AEHF and legacy Milstar constellations. Completion of the combined reviews also cleared the way for the software teams to begin “drops,” or internal software deliveries. The first such drop, which streamlined the FAB-T architecture by removing a number of interfaces that are no longer required, has already been completed. Other drops scheduled for the coming months will continue the satellite-terminal synchronization process and the addition of PNVC capability. Under the current FAB-T program, Boeing will develop nuclear-survivable terminals capable of using multiple waveforms and communicating with both the AEHF and the legacy Milstar satellite constellations. These development terminals will operate in fixed and transportable ground in