Re: Strange plane at Nellis Red Flag


Message posted by RCS Polemodel on May 10, 2009 at 22:26:25 PST:

Strictly speaking, they aren't body parts, but places to mount F-22 antennas and sensors. The 757 flying test bed was absolutely essential to meeting the schedule requirements of the avionics and software development program back in the late 90s and early 2000s. These sensors, mounted in fairings on the engine intakes, inside the leading edge flaps, and in the stabilators, work with the APG-77 to perform EW & CNI functions. They have to be tested as a suite. Getting these LPI antennas and sensors to work and play as a team is one of the tricky parts of making the F-22 work as advertised. As the link below hints, each F-22 has its LPI antenna set calibrated as a unique set. The cal data is loaded on a DVD which physically travels with the airplane, so the suite can be re-calibrated after any maintenance & adjustments.

But all that work was done years ago. The 757 was put into storage. Now it's been returned to service, renamed the "Agile Integration Lab," and is being used to develop and troubleshoot the increment 3.1 software upgrade. It'd be a reasonable guess that the 757 was at Red Flag to 'fly' the new software in a diverse red/blue environment and see how many bugs they could find & fix. And maybe even try out some of the new electronic attack capabilities of the 3.1 upgrade.

Attached link: http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/antenna-range-design.htm#F22ANTCAL

In Reply to: Re: Strange plane at Nellis Red Flag posted by bubba on May 10, 2009 at 19:59:48 PST:

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