Multifunction RF (MFRF)
Abstract
The Multifunction RF (MFRF) program enabled U.S. rotary wing aircraft forces to fight effectively in all forms of severely Degraded Visual Environments (DVE) when our adversaries cannot. The program went beyond landing aids in DVE to address all elements of combat to include landing, takeoff, hover/taxi, in route navigation, lethality, and survivability. Building on previous RF sensors advancements, the program sought to eliminate many redundant RF elements of current independently developed situational and combat support systems to provide multifunction capability with flexibility of adding new mission functions. This reduced the overall Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) of subsystems and protrusive exterior antennas on military aircraft, enabling greater mission capability with reduced vehicle system integration burden. The program approach included: (1) development of synthetic vision for pilots that fuses sensor data with high-resolution terrain databases; (2) development of Advanced Rotary Multifunction Sensor (ARMS), utilizing silicon-based tile arrays, for agile electronically scanning technology at low SWaP-C; and (3) implementation of software development kit to re-define modes as required by mission or platform needs, and ease of adding new modes via software without hardware modifications. Technology developed under this program transitioned to the Army.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Source ID
- d0df9b92b96492a0f6b4399b1cd19786
Related Documents
- Root: SENSOR TECHNOLOGY