 Avionics anomalies during a multi-aircraft mission will no longer mean an abort for pilots flying the Lockheed Martin JSF. That verdict came from the successful demonstration of a working prototype of the Air Vehicle Prognostic and Health Management and the Joint Distributed Information System. These combined systems let the mission proceed after data from a healthy aircraft is transferred to a disabled aircraft participating in the same mission. The systems also set in motion the ground repair process even before the affected aircraft land.
The demonstration consisted of a simulated two-ship mission during which a radar system failure was artificially induced into one of the aircraft. The demonstration predicted the time remaining before the radar was shutdown by a gradual increase in temperature. Time remaining was also estimated and then the information was transmitted to in-flight mission replanning software.
The software then presented mission options to the pilot of the disabled ship ranked by lethality against the enemy. The pilot selected the preferred option and then shut down his radar, traded places with his wingman, and received information from his wingman’s radar. Because the wingman’s aircraft could supply radar information to both ships, the pilots could deploy their weapons, destroy the target, and complete the mission.
While the pilots finished the mission, the management system correctly isolated the failure and transmitted a report to the home base. The report triggered a logistics process for obtaining a replacement part for the stricken aircraft, finding a properly trained maintenance person, selecting a computer-based refresher course for the maintainer, and locating necessary support equipment to complete the repairs. |
