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Ought To Be Named Jane's 'reports' below. Didn't even bother
to note that over a dozen of similar |
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Lockheed
Martin EP-3E Aries II Role: SIGnals INTelligence (SIGINT) aircraft. Status: Operational. Description The EP-3E Aries II SIGINT system is a conversion of the Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and is operated by a crew of 20. Within this figure, there are flight and mission crews of five and 15 respectively. The flight crew comprises a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and two navigators while known details of the mission crew stations are as follows: Unidentified station As of this issue, an unidentified operator station is located to port in the front end of the aircraft's main cabin. Sources suggest that this position houses an in-flight maintenance technician. Manual ELectronic INTelligence (ELINT) station The manual ELINT station is located at the front end of a five position Electronic Support (ES) console which is located to port in the main cabin centre section. The manual ELINT operator is tasked with signals analysis and receiver control and is reported to become the focus of the platform's radar ES capability in the event of a main mission computer failure. Low-band signal collection station Moving aft, the low-band signal collection station is located next to the manual ELINT position on the ES console. Target systems for this station are reported to include early warning, height finding and meteorological radars. High-band analysis station Moving aft, the high-band analysis station is located next to the low-band signal collection position on the ES console. Tasking here is said to centre on high-band radars associated with interceptor aircraft with acquired data being distributed among other onboard operators. `Big Look' operator station Moving aft, the `Big Look' operator station is located next to the high-band analysis position on the ES console. Taskings here are thought to include management of the EP-3E's AN/APS-134(V) radar and the aircraft's long range ES receivers together with evaluation of newly acquired signals. ELINT supervisor station Moving aft, the ELINT supervisor station is located next to the `Big Look' position on the ES console. As its name suggests, this station is used for supervision of the ES console as a whole. Electronic Warfare (EW) co-ordinator station Moving aft, the EW co-ordination station is located next to the ELINT supervisor's position on the ES console. Taskings here are thought to comprise the integration of acquired ELINT and COMmunications INTelligence (COMINT) data and its dissemination to offboard users. COMINT special task supervisor/collection director station Moving aft, the special task supervisor/collection director station is located next to the EW co-ordinator position. This position handles management of the aircraft's COMINT section. COMINT console Located to starboard in the rear section of the main cabin, the COMINT console provides accommodation for five operators whose tasks include COMINT collection, analysis and interpretation. A sixth COMINT position is located to port at the rear of the main cabin. In terms of mission equipment, the EP-3E's various onboard systems are divided into ES Sensors (ESS), Special/ES Common SubSystem (SESCSS) and Special Station Sensor (SSS) elements. Of these, the SSS systems relate to the COMINT function and a listing of the various equipments fitted and their catagorisation is given in Table 1. Externally, the Aries II platform is characterised by dorsal and ventral `canoe' fairings (noted as housing the system's OE-320 direction-finding antenna group see Table 1); a large ventral radome (described as housing the OE-319 `Big Look' antenna see Table 1); blade antenna arrays beneath the outer wing panels and rear fuselage; antenna pods for an AN/ALR-76 ES system on both wingtips; a wire aerial array around the empennage and a `flower pot' radome beneath the rear fuselage. The EP-3E is reported to be fitted with a Link 11 datalink and an AN/AYK-14 central mission computer, is credited with a service ceiling of 8,230 m and is said to cost (spring 1997) $2,100 per flight hour to operate. The US Navy (USN) defines the EP-3E's role in the following terms:
Description: ALD-9(V) is a dual-channel, interferometric communications band direction-finder which utilises bit slice processing and a blade antenna reception array. Description: ALR-76 is an automated ES system which is designed to detect, track, identify, classify and locate radar emitters and supply its host platform with threat warnings if necessary. The baseline system comprises two reception assemblies (each incorporating four cavity-backed planar spiral antennas housed in pods attached to each of the aircraft's wingtips); two multibandwidth (narrow and broadband) receivers and a signal comparator unit. In the ES role, the equipment's output can be fused with other acquired sensor data to create a situational awareness display. As a threat warner, ALR-76 provides audio alerts and can exercise control of an onboard dispenser system. Functionally, the system's comparator measures received signal characteristics in all four receiver channels simultaneously and hosts its control/correlation and pulse processors. The control/correlator processor also manages the loading and storage of the equipment's software threat library while the pulse processor functions in real time. Together, these two processors have a 448,000 word capacity memory. Description: ALR-81(V) is a microprocessor-controlled ELINT receiver system that features low-noise synthesised tuners; high-resolution, digitally refreshed radio and intermediate frequency panoramic, multimode direction-finding and scan displays; automatic millimetre wave activity detection; programmable acquisition, scan rate and direction-finding thresholds; one or more integrated AS-135 antenna/receiver assemblies (each of which contains direction-finding and millimetre detection arrays and a downconverter) and a display unit. Antenna assembly dimensions: 0.48 × 0.61 m Antenna gain: +4 to +31 dBi (typical) Antenna beamwidth: 1.6-75º (azimuth) Description: Designed originally as an anti-submarine warfare tool which would be capable of detecting deployed periscopes in high sea states, APS-134(V) is a pulse compression radar which incorporates a fast scanning antenna and digital processing. In baseline form, the system has three operating modes, designated as `A', `B' and `C'. Of these, `A' mode is used for small target detection in sea clutter; has selected range settings of up to 59 km and has a scan rate of 150 rpm and a Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) of 2,000 pulses/s. `B' mode is designed for maritime surveillance out to ranges of 278 km using scan rate and PRF values of 40 rpm and 500 pulses/s respectively. `C' mode is a medium resolution option for search (out to 278 km) and navigation and utilises a low PRF value and a 6 rpm scan rate. Power output: 500 W (average); 500 kW (peak) Antenna beamwidth: 2.4º (azimuth); 4º (elevation) Polarisation: vertical Description: The Control Data AYK-14 is the USN's standard aircraft computer and is described as being a microprogrammable device that is functionally partitioned into modules. It is reported to be able to accommodate up to 16 Input/Output (I/O) cards, five of which are smart and incorporate their own onboard controllers. Use of an expansion chassis allows for additional I/O ports and the device incorporates two memory busses to provide overlapping memory access. A PrePlanned Product Improvement (P3I) variant of the design was first delivered during 1987 and is described as featuring a new single card processor (which replaces three cards in the original configuration) that offers twice the processing power and eight times the memory of its predecessor. The new processor is also noted as incorporating a 16-bit central processor, a 32-bit math co-processor (designated as the Extended Arithmetic Unit), a cache memory and an extended instruction set. Control Data is also understood to have developed a plug-in Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) processor module for use with the P3I AYK-14. This VHSIC insert incorporates a 64 k cache memory and is said to quadruple the device's processing power and `substantially' increase its memory. Deliveries of the plug-in VHSIC module began during 1991 and it is thought that all the USN's P3I AYK-14s will eventually be fitted with it. The following specifications relate to the P3I variant of the device. Speed: up to 2.3 Mips Clock rate: 1 MHz Word length: 16 bits (can work on up to 32-bit data) Memory: 4 mwords (in 32 kword semiconductor or 64 kword core modules) Description: The ULQ-16(V) pulse analyser features manual or automatic control and can accept the video output produced by any microwave receiver with an intermediate frequency of 160 MHz. The specific (V)2 designation signifies that the equipment is packaged for airborne use. Overall, the system has six operating modes; automatic analysis, manual time base, manual delayed time base, manual single sweep, manual self-test and manual falling raster. ULQ-16(V) is menu driven; generates real-time displays in all its modes and incorporates an integral software emitter parameter library. This latter facility can be edited via an integral keypad and/or an external keyboard. Parametric measurements provided comprise pulse repetition frequency and interval; pulsewidth; pulse amplitude; scan time and rate; illumination time and bandwidth. Available options include multichannel processing and pulse-by-pulse frequency analysis. Within the Aries II mission suite, ULQ-16(V) is understood to be the subject of an upgrade programme. Description: Also known as TActical Digital Intelligence Link (TADIL) A, Link 11 is a NATO standard encrypted, digital datalink that is fitted to both ships and aircraft. The equipment's HF output is amplitude modulated while that at UHF is frequency modulated. Messages are transmitted in 30-bit data frames made up of 24 bits of encrypted data and 6 bits of error-detection code. Range: up to 46 km (UHF); up to 557 km (HF) Operating speed: 1,364 bps/44.75 frames/s or 2,250 bps/75 frames/s Description: Originally associated with the AN/ALQ-110 `Big Look' radar analysis system, OE-319 is described by an as yet unconfirmed source as being a 1.8 × 3.7 m mechanically scanned antenna that can receive across the 0.3 to 18 GHz frequency range and transmit within the 0.3 to 10 GHz band. The unit is said to be derived from the antenna used in the AN/APS-20 search radar; is credited with full and sector scan capabilities together with a degree of mobility in elevation and is noted as being able to localise emitters in its active mode. It has also been suggested that it is co-located with the array used by the ALQ-108 identification friend-or-foe jammer. As of this issue, readers are advised to treat the foregoing description of OE-319 with some caution. Description: Described by an as yet unconfirmed source as covering the 0.5 to 2 GHz and 2 to 18 GHz frequency bands, the OE-320 DF antenna group is said to be made up of 60 cm diameter antennas that can scan at speeds of up to 200 rpm. The system is noted as being able to be directed to cover 15, 30, 60 or 120º sectors relative to the host aircraft's centreline and to have its antennas automatically or manually steered onto a signal of interest. Antenna gain is said to be within the 1 to 27 dB range dependent on frequency. As of this issue, readers are advised to treat the foregoing description of OE-320 with some caution.
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