AMC Test and Evaluation part of team leading effort in KC-135 LAIRCM possibilities

Published March 14, 2011
By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- For nearly 55 years since the first KC-135 Stratotanker became a part of the Air Force in August 1956, no KC-135 has carried a defensive system. But that has changed. One aircraft is now equipped with a Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures, or LAIRCM, defensive system.

In a combined effort between Air Mobility Command, the Air National Guard, the KC-135 System Program Office, Northrop-Grumman and other agencies, a KC-135 LAIRCM-based pod defensive system is becoming a reality. The pod, called the Guardian System by maker Northrop-Grumman, is a laser-based countermeasures system designed to detect, provide warning of, and employ countermeasures against infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles.

Performed as a risk reduction engineering study, the installation on the KC-135 consisted of a typical distributed LAIRCM system where all the system components were installed throughout the aircraft -- permanently, according to officials from AMC's Test and Evaluation Division.

"Distributed systems commonly have high cost and weight penalties associated with them, and on a mission as critical as air refueling -- every drop of fuel over the fight counts," said Lt. Col. Randall Sealy, tanker test manager and chief of Headquarters Air Mobility Command's Aircraft Test Management Branch -- part of AMC's Test and Evaluation.

So the KC-135 LAIRCM team made the concept portable. They said, "What if the LAIRCM system was modular and transferable?"

"The tanker could then maximize capabilities while minimizing risk," Colonel Sealy said. "In today's environment, flexibility really is the key to airpower."

The operational concept for pod operation is for a modified KC-135 to have an "A kit," Colonel Sealy said. "This kit includes an adapter plate, associated wiring and operator controls. Based on mission requirements, the pod can then be attached as required. The pod is intended to provide adequate infrared countermeasures for departure, descent and approach for the KC-135."

Once it's on the plane, the Guardian System LAIRCM pod "is an encased system of sensors software and a laser tracker that can identify infrared ground-based missile threats, sense them, track them, and then defeat them using a laser to spoof the missile off course," according to a news article by 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs at Edwards AFB, Calif., where some of the LAIRCM testing has been done.

Several tests on the "suitability" of the LAIRCM pod aboard the KC-135 -- to include an operational utility evaluation -- have been completed already, Colonel Sealy said. In addition to Air National Guard-Air Force Reserve Command Test Center, the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB and the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center KC-135 System Program Office performed an electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility test on the pod, as well as a flight demonstration for safety of flight and handling characteristics.

The 46th Training Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla., using operational aircrews and a KC-135 from the Kansas Air National Guard's 190th Air Refueling Wing at Forbes Field in Topeka, conducted open air range testing of the pod's effectiveness with a ground-based Mallina missile plume simulator to measure the pod's response.

Mr. James Shilling, LAIRCM program manager from Northrop-Grumman of Chicago which developed the system, said the pod did very well in all its tests.

"We were very pleased with the data we've received," Mr. Shilling said. "Overall, everything we've seen thus far has been very positive. We've accomplished the operational testing, design testing and soon we are going to fly into theater on an aeromedical evacuation mission using the pod.

"We've received very positive feedback from the flight crews -- there were no noticeable handling characteristics that were detrimental to flight," Mr. Shilling added. "The receiver pilots saw no effects that would prevent them from refueling. We flew two [receiver] aircraft out of Edwards -- they reported no problems. At the Eglin at the test range...the system performed as it was designed and we were again, very pleased."

The Guardian System LAIRCM pod was originally developed with the help of the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Shilling said, which only benefits the Air Force.

"The government gets to reap the benefit from that program because an immense amount of work has already been done," he said. "We know that LAIRCM works and we know it works in a pod. We accumulated nearly 24,000 operating hours and almost 4,800 sorties while flying in the DHS program so we know the system works. That's what [the Air Force] gets to take advantage of -- you get all that data at no cost to you."

In addition to cost savings from design and development work already done by Northrop-Grumman and the DHS, Mr. Shilling said the other advantage of the Guardian System is its "portability." The pod version of LAIRCM could provide adequate protection for the KC-135 or other aircraft substantial lower cost over a typical distributed version.

"We can literally roll it under the airplane and install it in under 10 minutes," Mr. Shilling said. "And it doesn't care which airplane it goes on. So, the KC-135 can be flying its mission in all the countries it needs to operate, but then if you have another modified airplane going into harm's way, then all we have to do is remove it from the (KC)-135 and place it on the other aircraft to protect it."

Mr. Raymond Berhalter, program manager at the KC-135 System Program Office at Tinker AFB, Okla., said the current testing of the KC-135 LAIRCM "was always designed to be a suitability evaluation."

"If this does become a true and active program, there's a significant amount of testing and documentation that needs to be done," Mr. Berhalter said. "Right now, this is a demonstration of a previously developed system."