Navy orders night-vision helmet-mounted displays to help combat pilots fly at night
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 25 Aug. 2015. Combat avionics experts at Rockwell Collins-ESA Vision Systems in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the U.S. military with 120 head-up helmet-mounted displays for high-performance fighter-bomber aircraft under terms of a $20.9 million order.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking Rockwell Collins-ESA Vision Systems to provide 120 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System Night Vision Cueing and Display (NVCD) systems, 30 helmet mounted display test sets, and 120 interim spares.
The NVCD is part of the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), which projects symbology and imagery onto the pilot's helmet-mounted visor to help meet the workload of operating the aircraft; detecting, tracking, and engaging targets; and dealing with emergency situations. It enables high-performance jet fighter and bomber pilots to cue weapons and sensors at night.
The system is designed to allow near daytime tactics at night, while also providing the system's head-up display data over the eye in addition to camera video recording of the pilot’s viewpoint. Rockwell Collins-ESA Vision Systems is a partnership of Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Elbit Systems of America in Fort Worth, Texas.
The NVCD enables aircrews simultaneously to display radar and navigation symbology on the helmet's display and cue short-range air-to-air missiles. It helps pilots identify terrain, targets, and other aircraft at night.
The JHMCS and NVCD are mounted on a lightweight HGU 55/P helmet shell that can accommodate the day or night modules. The system offers a 100-by-40-degree field of view or 40 degrees circular, with symbology or video inserted into the night-vision scene.
On this contract Rockwell Collins-ESA Vision Systems will do the work in Merrimack, N.H.; Wilsonville, Ore. (15 percent); Atlanta; and Fort Worth, Texas, and should be finished by August 2019.
For more information contact Rockwell Collins online at www.rockwellcollins.com, Elbit Systems of America at www.elbitsystems-us.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
