Rockwell Collins-ESA to provide 120 head-up helmet-mounted displays for jet fighter-bombers
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – Combat avionics experts at Rockwell Collins-ESA Vision Systems in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the U.S. Navy with 120 head-up helmet-mounted displays for high-performance jet fighter-bombers under terms of a $20.9 million order announced Tuesday.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking Rockwell Collins-ESA Vision Systems to provide 140 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing system, Night Vision Cueing and Display systems for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 jet fighter-bomber squadrons.
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 enable pilots to fly 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.
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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.; Atlanta; and Fort Worth, Texas, and should be finished by July 2020.
For more information contact Rockwell Collins online at www.rockwellcollins.com, Elbit Systems of America at www.elbitsystems-us.com, or the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at www.navair.navy.mil/nawcad.
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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.
