Flyable Comanche EOSS Delivered
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has delivered the first flight-worthy RAH-66 Electro-Optical Sensor System (EOSS) to the Boeing Mobile Hot Bench for systems integration. The combined Comanche Night Vision Pilotage System (NVPS) and Electro-Optical Target Acquisition and Designation Sight (EOTADS) is scheduled to undergo functional, thermal, and vibration testing at Lockheed Martin's Florida facilities before returning to Boeing in December. First flight on Comanche Aircraft Number Three is expected in the first quarter of 2004.
The Comanche EOSS uses second-generation Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) technology in both the top NVPS and bottom EOTADS to improve the range and resolution of navigation and targeting imagery at night and in adverse weather. The NPVS will supplement the advanced thermal imager with an Image Intensifier TV (I2TV ). The EOTADs incorporates a low-light television camera and laser designator. In contrast to the first-generation visionics on the AH-64 Apache, the Comanche EOSS contains all its processing electronics in the stacked sensor turrets.
The flyable, production-representative EOSS follows a developmental NVPS flying on Comanche Number Two, and a systems integration EOSS used in Boeing's mobile hotbench. It has all the navigation, targeting, and designation functions baselined for the Block 1 RAH-66 but lacks the NVPS I2 sensor to be retrofitted later in Engineering and Manufacturing Development and incorporated in all subsequent systems. In EMD, Lockheed Martin is scheduled to deliver one EOSS in 2003, one in 2004, six in 2005, and three in 2006.
Lockheed Martin has made extensive use of robust algorithms rather than mechanical thermal reference sources to improve the dynamic range and enhance the scene content of the thermal images. The production-representative package will be about 10 to 12% lighter than the original EOSS specification.
The Comanche EOSS uses Second Generation FLIR technology, but an open electrical architecture makes the system compatible with Third Generation focal plane arrays once their performance is defined. Lockheed Martin is pursuing a flight test program for a combined mid- and long-wave infrared sensor.
EOSS development has also given Lockheed Martin SADA 1 (Standard Advanced Dewar Array 1) Integrated Detector-Cooler Assemblies (ICDAs), dense Electronic Card Assemblies (ECAs), and algorithms suitable for Horizontal Technology Integration on both the AH-64 Apache and Future Combat System ground sensor. According to Robert Costello, Lockheed Martin Comanche EOSS director, "When the Objective Force is fielded, we will have three products out there that have a lot of synergy between components. . . The American taxpayer should love us. "