In July 2010 the UK Royal Air Force, Spanish Air Force, Italian Air Force and the German Luftwaffe have begun taking delivery of the most advanced Helmet Mounted Symbology System (HMSS) which will form a key component of their Eurofighter Typhoon weapon systems.
The HMSS significantly improves tactical performance for Eurofighter pilots, by providing essential flight and weapon aiming information through line of sight imagery. Information imagery includes aircraft's flight parameters, weapons status and aiming all projected on the HEA (Helmet Equipment Assembly) visor, thereby enabling the pilot to simultaneously look out in any direction (head out) and have all required flight and weapon aiming information always in his field of vision.
Together the Typhoon Helmet and HMSS provide world leading capabilities, giving the pilot, in conjunction with the rest of the Typhoon Human Machine Interface, unrivalled situational awareness whether “head in”or “head outâ€.
The HMSS passive and stealthy sensor system, developed and manufactured by BAE Systems, provides the Eurofighter pilot with significant operational advantages by reducing pilot workload and increasing the weapon envelope in combat situations. The Eurofighter Pilot will be able to instantly designate targets with full head movement, reducing the need for in-cockpit switch selection and aircraft manoeuvring. This exploits the full potential of high off-boresight missiles such as IRIS-T and ASRAAM which can now be deployed without the need to turn the aircraft on to the target.
As well as providing non-avionic type helmet essential safety characteristics of pilot life support and communications functions, the HMSS has full integration with all Eurofighter attack and navigation systems. The new helmet can be used throughout the full aircraft envelope (up to 9g) for both air-to-air and air-to-ground day / night missions. Ongoing weapon system capabilities including additional air-to-ground features will be released next year with the first already contracted batch of the Eurofighter enhancements programme. The new helmet and HMSS allow for ongoing development and enhancement such as increased night vision capabilities.
The HMSS is manufactured from carbon fibre and at under 2 kg its weight is similar to other contemporary non-HMSS helmets. Its modular design incorporates a pilot personal “inner”helmet, which fits into the standard “outer”avionic HMMS. This design allows both personal comfort and reduced ownership costs through the flexibility of an outer interchangeable HMSS. Ejection safety characteristics are built into the design.
The new helmet and HMSS has be in action during the Farnborough Air Show with BAE Systems test pilot Nat Makepeace wearing it during his daily air display.
Y para la polémica (y propaganda), dicen que en simulaciones internas, 4 Eurofighters apoyados por un AWACS fueron capaces de derrotar a 8 F-35 atacantes en un 85% de las veces: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... -typh.html
By Stephen Trimble on July 22, 2010 11:08 AM
Eurofighter has launched a new campaign to assert the supremacy of the Typhoon against the Lockheed Martin F-35 in air-to-air combat, describing internal simulations giving the former an advantage over a numerically superior F-35 attack force.
The campaign is aimed at challenging Lockheed's claims that the F-35 enjoys a 6:1 exchange ratio over modern fighters. Eurofighter also hopes to dispel creeping global acceptance of Lockeed's description of the F-35 as a fifth generation fighter that is implicitly superior to so-called fourth generation fighters, such as the Typhoon.
...
Lockheed and programme officials have claimed that the days of traditional dogfighting are over. A promotional video released last year by F-35 supplier Northrop Grumman claims, for example, that "manoeuvrability is irrelevant" to a modern fighter. The video shows the F-35 can defeat opponents not with dogfighting skill, but by firing missiles agile enough to turn 180º.
Eurofighter, however, claims the F-35 lacks all-aspect, very low observable stealth, and is vulnerable to detection and defeat by non-stealthy opponents. In an internal simulation series, Eurofighter found that four Typhoons supported by an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) defeated 85% of attacks by eight F-35s carrying an internal load of two joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs) and two air-to-air missiles, Penrice says. According to Laurie Hilditch, Eurofighter's head of future requirements capture, the F-35's frontal-aspect stealth can be defeated by stationing interceptors and AWACS at a 25º to 30º angle to the F-35's most likely approach path to a target.
) se dice que los únicos que llevan el LWR son los británicos, pero lo cierto es que los nuestros parece que también lo montan. ¿Sabeis algo?
