March 24, 2017
Public Affairs, Volume 64, Number 12
416th FLTS testing fifth-generation radar for F-16 Falcon
By Kenji Thuloweit 412th Test Wing Public Affairs
The 416th Flight Test Squadron continually conducts developmental testing to enhance the warfighting capabilities of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. One focus of the F-16 testers here is the integration and testing of a new radar as part of the F-16 Radar Modernization Program. According to its manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, the APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar is a fifth-generation radar that is an Active Electronically Scanned Array fire control radar. It is intended to replace currently used APG-66 and APG-68 radars and provide the F-16 with advanced capabilities similar to fifth-generation fighters like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. It also has the ability to operate in dense electronic environments, simultaneous multi-mode operations and enhanced system availability through increased reliability, maintainability and supportability. The APG-83 is designed to be installed without making any major modifications to the jet. “The APG-83 will be a form, fit and function modification that will operate within existing space, power and cooling capabilities of the platform,” said Lt. Col. Chris Keithley, 416th FLTS commander. The APG-83 could satisfy a need for F-16 users to counter increasingly sophisticated and technological threats with increased bandwidth that would allow the F-16 to detect, track and identify greater numbers of targets faster, and at greater distances. “With the modernization comes increased capabilities,”
Maintenance personnel install mounting hardware for an APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar on a 416th Flight Test Squadron F-16 Fighting Falcon in August 2015. The 416th FLTS has been conducting developmental testing on the fifth-generation Active Electronically Scanned Array fire control radar. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christopher Okula)
said Michael Powell, 416 FLTS, project lead. “It is a more modern and stable radar.” Powell added the F-16 RMP at the 416th FLTS is ongoing with several ground and flight tests performed with the APG83 in the past two years. Data collected will be used by the Air Force to determine if the radar can be implemented operationally in the future. The F-16 first entered the Air Force in January 1979.
Small quadcopter test is first on active Air Force taxiway By Christopher Ball 412th Test Wing Public Affairs
(U.S. Air Force photo by Christian Turner)
An unusual aircraft went through its motions on the Edwards Air Force Base flightline March 16 when a small quadcopter equipped with a camera took to the sky to perform a visual inspection of a B-52 Stratofortress. This was the first-ever test using a small unmanned aerial system near an active taxiway on an Air Force flightline. As aircraft taxied by on their way to launch or recovery, and others flew overhead, the tiny quadcopter flew a pattern around the B-52 under the direction of the Emerging Technologies Combined Test Force. This inspection was the second in a series of tests to examine the feasibility of using small unmanned aerial systems to perform visual pre- and post-flight inspections of large aircraft. The first was done on a C-17 Globemaster III parked on an out-of-the-way ramp during training day.
Maj. Will Niblack, the ET CTF operations officer and an sUAS pilot, said there were some added challenges to this second test with the B-52. “Two significant differences were conducting the aircraft inspection near a main operating taxiway – successfully avoiding being a conflict to other aircraft – and completing this capability (demonstration) while actual exterior maintenance was being done on the aircraft. We avoided being a hindrance to their maintenance operation,” Niblack said. One of those maintainers, James Rebel, a B-52 crew chief with the 912th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, was working on his aircraft as the sUAS was doing its tests. He said he thought it was a pretty cool concept. “It only takes about an hour for us to get harnessed up and do an inspection,” See Quadcopter, Page 3