Black Watch
The Air Force’s EC-130H Compass Call aircraft fleet will be equipped with Fairchild Controls’ vapor cycle cooling system, which will provide environmental control for the onboard mission systems.
Fairchild Controls’ Special Systems Air Conditioner (SSAC) will provide 62 kW of cooling power for the EC-130H. This system will consist of a mission-critical, twin-redundant vapor cycle pack with lightweight helical screw compressors and an integrated motor/system controller.
Fairchild Controls will supply the cooling system to L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, which will retrofit it as part of upgrades being performed on the fleet of Compass Call aircraft.
“The SSAC is our latest product for the legendary C-130, and it incorporates increased efficiency resulting from our company’s ongoing research and development,” said Scott Selle, Fairchild Controls. “We’ll be combining our competency in ultracompact and rugged military vapor cycle systems with the efficiency of Fairchild Controls’ larger commercial aircraft supplemental cooling systems. I am proud to add a great new partner, L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, to our roster of customers.”
Express Blast
Remington is adding to its tactical shotgun line with the Model 870 express Tactical. With an 18.5-inch barrel, the Model 870 express Tactical with XS Ghost Ring sights is optimized for rapid target acquisition and precise shot placement with the XS blade sight and XS Ghost Ring sight rail (fully adjustable for windage and elevation), which accepts optics and sight systems as well. It loads seven rounds of 2.75-inch or 3-inch 12-gauge shells with the factory-installed two-shot extension.
The Model 870 Tactical Desert Recon series shotguns are equipped with Tiger Stripe Products Digital Tiger desert camo stocks and fore-ends, and military-style olive drab powder-coated metalwork. Both come with the special ported Tactical Extended Rem choke tube. Remington’s all-black Model 870 SPS tactical shotguns are offered with 18-inch and 20-inch barrels, three stock options, including a Knoxx SpecOps folding stock with recoil-reducing springs and two- or three-shot magazine-tube extensions.
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Mobile Firepower
The Viper gun system (VGS) is a family of enhanced crew-served gun mounts, which bridge the gap between traditional crew-served gun mounts and more costly remote weapon stations. The VGS has an innovative weapons interchange platform, which allows the warfighter to interchange up to six weapons (M230LF, LW25, MK19, MK47, M3P3 and M134 Dillon mini gun) in under 15 minutes utilizing the same mount. “The Viper Gun System bridges the gap between a standard gun mount and a remote weapon station, providing enhanced optics, stabilization and the ability to interchange different weapons utilizing the same mount,” said Larry Cozine, Nobles Manufacturing’s director of business development. “The system provides scalable lethality to the warfighter, allowing the matching of a weapon system to a mission requirement without changing mounts and at a third of the cost of a remote weapon station.” The VGS also incorporates a patent-pending gun mount braking system, which allows for superior weapon stabilization during firing. The VGS has an open footprint to allow installation on multiple platforms and incorporates an integrated flex chute and ammunition magazine into a compact and versatile weapons platform. The system also incorporates enhanced optics with both night vision and laser range finding options.
The first in this series is the VGS30, utilizing the M230LF 30 mm chain gun, which fires the linked M789 series high explosive dual purpose ammunition and provides superior armor penetration at ranges from 150 to 4,000 meters. Combined with blast, concussion and fragmentation effects against soft targets, it provides a superior multi-role, multi-target capability. The M230LF fires at a rate of 200 SPM in two firing modes, single shot and full auto and incorporates an anti-hang fire safety protection system.
Larry Cozine:
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Vehicle Adapter Amplifier
Thales Communications Inc. has completed the delivery of multiple orders for its new 50-watt dual vehicular adapter/power amplifier to the Air Force’s Tactical Air Control Party Modernization Office (TACP-M) at Hanscom Air Force Base.
The Air Force procured more than 700 50-watt AN/VRC-111 vehicle adapter amplifiers (VAAs), which are two-channel systems with software-defined radio flexibility. It provides 50 watts of power in the 30- to 88-MHz frequency range and 20 watts of power in the 90- to 512-MHz frequency range. As part of these orders, Thales also delivered more than 200 of its 20-watt AN/VRC-111 systems.
Each VAA incorporates two AN/PRC-148 JTRS enhanced multiband inter/intra team radios and provides the unique capability of rapid, cable-free radio dismount in less than two seconds. Shifting between mounted and dismounted operations with no loss in communications is critical to TACP survival.
Most of the VAAs will be installed in TACP’s new mine resistant ambush protected vehicles and in their already-fielded AN/GRC-206 communications pallets, where they will be used as an interim replacement for existing legacy radios.
“The TACP community has been turning to us for a long time for essential communications products that do what they are designed to do,” said Ray Bruhn, business development manager for Air Force programs at Thales Communications.
Ray Bruhn:
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On Target
Sig Sauer Inc., a manufacturer of commercial, law enforcement and military firearms now has a rotary diopter sight system optimized for the SIG556 rifle. This new sight system provided four site stations for accurate engagement at varying distances including CQB, 100 meters, 200 m and 300 m, all with tool-less windage and elevation adjustment. Designed to work in conjunction with the hooded front sight, the rotary diopter sight system attaches to the receiver’s M1913 rail.
Made of durable steel construction, the sight system retrofits all existing SIG556 rifles. The front and rear sight co-witness with the Sig Sauer mini red dot sight and are optimized for M855 and M193 ammunition. The sight features 0.5 MOA click adjustments and 34-inch windage/25-inch elevation adjustment range at 100 meters.
The sight is standard on the SIG556 SWAT and Classic rifle models. This feature now provides serious shooters with a highquality indexed set of iron sights with CQB capabilities.
Dane Davis: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Autonomous Refueling
The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded an industry team led by Boeing a four-year contract worth $49 million to continue developing technology that will enable an unmanned air vehicle to autonomously rendezvous with a tanker aircraft and refuel.
Under Phase II of the Automated Aerial Refueling (AAR) program, the industry team, formally named the AAR Integrator Team, will coordinate flight tests that will include autonomous multiship operations and the actual delivery of fuel to a manned surrogate UAV.
“We are very pleased that our team has been selected for the AAR Phase II Integrator Contract,” said David Riley, Boeing Research and Technology program manager for AAR. “This team, which covers a broad industrial base, has many strengths and capabilities to ensure that AAR technologies are developed effectively to support future UAV system development programs for the U.S. Air Force.”
The AAR Integrator Team includes prime contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, plus aerospace suppliers Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, GE Aviation, Rockwell Collins and the Sierra Nevada Corp. As team leader, Boeing will be responsible for program execution and product delivery.
Phase II will be divided into two spirals.
During Spiral 1, the team will work collaboratively to design, build and integrate a multichannel precision global positioning system (GPS)-based navigation system, an automated flight control system, and AAR-specific command and control system components to accomplish boom and receptacle aerial refueling testing to be conducted by AFRL. All of this will be based on non-proprietary, hypothetical aircraft models that represent a variety of current and future Air Force missions.
During Spiral 2, the team will conduct trade studies and will evaluate non-GPS, sensor-based navigation measurement systems to augment the Spiral 1 GPS sensors. Once added to the system, the non-GPS sensors potentially will provide support for probe and drogue refueling. ♦