This article first appeared in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
The Defense Department is kicking off a program to design, build and demonstrate prototypes of the Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (JATAS) to protect U.S. Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft from dumb and smart weapons.
The two current competitors are Lockheed Martin and the team of Alliant Techsystems (ATK), BAE Systems and Goodrich. The teams were awarded two 16-month Navy contracts.
JATAS is to be the core of a system that can grow — as technology and funding allow — to detect and later retaliate against small arms fire and shoulder-fired rockets as well as surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles.
Digital integration among operational forces in the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force – after generations of talk, but little success – is showing surprisingly vibrant signs of life. A key concept behind JATAS is to better network the information that is collected by a growing package of advanced sensors.
Demand for the missile-detection capability is being accelerated by the heavy volume of automatic small arms fire often encountered in Afghanistan and by the availability on the black market of Russian-built SA-16 Gimlet, SA-18 Grouse and SA-24 Grinch man-portable, air defense missiles.
Because of that changing threat, JATAS has designed-in flexibility that offers a portal for eventual integration of electronic attack and warfare capabilities.
“We really need to work the whole [electro-magnetic] spectrum now, not just because of manpads [man-portable air defense systems],” said Burt Keirstead, BAE Systems’ director of Navy programs for survivability solutions.
For the early phases of development, JATAS is to be compatible with the Army’s self-defense sensor package — the ALE-47 countermeasures (chaff and flares) dispensing system. In addition, those expendable countermeasures would be augmented with a device to disable the sensors of attacking guided missiles.
“As a requirement for the program, the Navy would like to evolve to a directable infrared countermeasure [DIRCM] — a jammer — which is part of the JATAS interface requirement,” Keirstead said. The Army already uses the advanced threat infrared countermeasures (ATIRCM) jamming laser.
Read the rest of this story, see what Brazilian defense company the Israelis have their eye on, check out new defense ties in Asia and ponder the future of Iron Dome with our friends at Aviation Week, exclusively on Military.com.
– Christian
"…to detect and later retaliate…"
1) In useful time? When flying low?
2) When flying alone?
3) I wonder if and when every single U.S. helicopter is going to be equipped with a system so sophisticated that even Airforce One doesn't have it!
4) Airforce One may not have this "portal for eventual integration of electronic attack and warfare capabilities" that warns it of a 0,50 calibre shooter standing at the end of the runway, or on some roof-top, but how is this system supposed to work against true hi-tech enemies? "Shoo, shoo" ?
5) Once again, the most important information is missing in this article (in this whole miracle technology…?) : What is a helicopter engulfed in a cloud of "dumb" ammunition supposed to do?
Drop tests?
Dodge the ammunition? Upgrade the armour?! Use chaff and flares? Expand the search across the electromagnetic spectrum? Even a near-miss of a missile (with proximity fuze) can blast it to smithereens!
You have good questions, but I won't answer them. I am a pioneer. Have fun doing research on your own
Christian, FYI, check HALTT
The poster "pedestrian" wrote: "Christian, FYI, check HALTT"
About "HALTT" :
"BBN Technologies Corp., Cambridge, Mass., was awarded on Oct. 1, 2009 an 8.647.422 $ cost-plus fixed-fee contract. The object of this effort is to provide five operational H-60 Blackhawk aircraft with the helicopter alert and threat termination (HALTT) shooter detection and localization capability. The Blackhawk aircraft will be deployed to Afghanistan for operational evaluation. The HALTT system will reduce the effectiveness of small arms fire by detecting bullets fired at the aircraft and precisely locating the shooter. This capability will enhance the safety of Blackhawk crews and aircraft to avoid loss of life and assets. Work is to be performed in Boston, Mass., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2010. One bid solicited with one bid received. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (HR0011-10-C-0017)."
http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.asp...
(Scroll two thirds down the page)
(By the way: I'm Christian Lowe)
Did you understand what I mean?
IRCM + HALTT = JATAS … well not really, but the concenpt of countermeasures against all threats (missiles + rockets + fire arms) against helicopter platforms. This links to Afghanistan, and future counter insurgency. I will bet Is rael is going to be staring at US again for these advanced COIN ideas. (Oh, by the way, Raytheon bought BBN Technologies weeks ago. I was surprised about that.)
Is this the end of evolution? No…
but I am not going to discuss further. I think I've unzipped my mouth too much today.
freefallingbomb , your new alias here? Why not try MOAB or MOP lol, just joking.
how about a laser to shoot em down?