Rockwell Collins to upgrade Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS) test ranges
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. –Test range experts at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will provide equipment and support for the U.S. Air Force next-generation military test ranges under terms of a $21.3 million order announced last week.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycles Management Center at Eglin Air Force base, Fla., are asking Rockwell Collins to provide the second production lot of the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS) system for installation at seven major Air Force test ranges throughout the United States.
CRIIS will replace the Advanced Range Data System (ARDS) in use at major U.S. military test ranges, and will support a variety of platforms, including advanced fifth-generation combat aircraft.
Rockwell Collins will provide new CRIIS equipment for upgrading the test and evaluation instrumentation at Air Force, Navy and Army test ranges.
This second production lot will help complete range installations and activations at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.; Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., White Sands Missile Range, N.M.; Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, Calif.; and Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Calif., Air Force officials say.
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The CRIIS system will implement the U.S. military's vision of common test and training infrastructure for improved operational realism. Rockwell Collins won an $83 million contract one year ago for modification, integration, and support of the CRIIS, including design, development and testing of system and block upgrades.
The CRIIS program provides time, space, position information (TSPI), additional platform test data, and employs a spectrally efficient data link including several independent levels of security (MILS), Rockwell Collins officials say.
CRIIS provides for secure range-to-range data exchange and hand off, so that an aircraft configured and starting a mission on one range can join the network on another range to complete the mission. Rockwell Collins is supporting alternate configurations and system enhancements.
On this contract modification Rockwell Collins will do the work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Richardson, Texas, and finished by April 2019. For more information contact Rockwell Collins online at www.rockwellcollins.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at paste link here.
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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.
