Rockwell Collins to provide new equipment and upgrades for CRIIS military test range systems
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. –Test range experts at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will provide upgrades, equipment, and support for the U.S. Air Force next-generation military test ranges under terms of a $15.2 million order announced Monday.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force base, Fla., are asking Rockwell Collins to provide the third production lot of the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS) system for installation at U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army test ranges throughout the United States.
CRIIS is replacing 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.
The order calls for Rockwell Collins to provide an additional nine Configuration-4 light production pods; 15 Configuration-4 heavy production pods; 12 Configuration-5 1553 production pods; five Configuration-5 fiber channel production pods; 14 Configuration-6 production pods; 16 portable test sets; one lot general production data; one remote ground station; four central control centers; 10 mission room equipment; and eight reference receivers.
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. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $328.7 million.
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Last April Rockwell Collins won a $21.3 million order to provide the second production lot of the CRIIS system for installation at seven major Air Force test ranges throughout the United States.
That second production lot was to 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.
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 October 2019. For more information contact Rockwell Collins online at www.rockwellcollins.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.
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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.
