Latest Gripen Demo goes through its paces
http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-ne ... ces-16703/
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To survive in a future battlespace the Gripen will need sophisticated defensive systems. The current EWS 39 suite in the JAS 39C/D is already highly advanced, but it is being developed to enhance the aircraft’s survivability. The main upgrade elements are the addition of a missile approach warning system (MAW), improved digital radio frequency memory (DRFM), and options for podded systems such as jammers for electronic attack, and towed radar decoys.
The MAW-300 system is being installed in the Demo aircraft, and part of the evaluation is to determine whether four sensors are sufficient, as opposed to the six used in other installations. The MAW-300 uses ultraviolet technology, but Saab plans to test a two-color IR system in the future.
The new EW system has enhanced direction-finding, and offers passive ranging and elevation measurement, making it a highly useful tool in the ESM/Elint role. The advanced DRFM allows the EW suite to provide a range of jamming options, including noise, deception and false target generation.
Also incorporated are mechanical countermeasures in the form of BOL chaff dispensers in the rear of the four underwing pylons. The BOP-C dispensers are mounted above and below the rear fuselage on either side of the fin. They fire IR flares upward and downward, with options for reactive or pre-emptive flare protection. The outer wing pylons can also mount launchers for towed radar decoys, while external jamming pods can be carried under the intake pylon.
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An entirely new avionics architecture
will empower Gripen NG
Away from the Gripen Demo aircraft there
is a second strand in future Gripen technology
work now underway. An avionics
design and development team will deliver
an entirely new avionics architecture
for Gripen NG. With a combination of
advanced hardware and a wide-ranging
re-appraisal of how an avionics system
functions, the improvements to Gripen NG
will be revolutionary.
Driving the new core computer system
avionics is the need to give customers a
step-change in affordability, availability,
flexibility and growth capacity over the
previous generation of avionics. At the same
time, weapon system performance and
safety must be guaranteed.
Design for Affordability
By adopting commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) hardware, Gripen NG brings
an enormous reduction in cost for the
complete avionics system. Out goes the ‘design
handcuffs’ of dedicated hardware and
bespoke solutions found in so many
previous systems. In comes a more modern,
more flexible and more affordable
COTS approach. COTS hardware provides
real economies of scale in development
and procurement costs. COTS systems also
benefit from the faster technology update
cycle of the commercial world.
Gripen NG’s avionics team is making
extensive use of model-based systems
development, with automatic software code
generation and automated testing. A dedicated
avionics development rig allows all
new software to be fully tested and verified
before it is inserted into the production
hardware. The ability to automatically
generate code for verification and validation
work significantly reduces development
costs and schedules. Hand-in-hand with
this, a model-based approach for concept
evaluation and production software
development allows for quicker and cheaper
development of essential symbology and
cockpit functionality.
Design for Flexibility and Security
Gripen NG takes advantage of the latest
ARINC 653 integrated modular avionics
standard that provides for the separation
of critical functions onboard the aircraft.
ARINC 653 sets out new design rules for
safety, security and the integration of both
common and user-specific capabilities.
Modular object-orientated software architecture
allows system changes to be
made, verified and certified in an efficient
manner. Each ARINC 653 partition can
isolate an individual customer’s specific
data. This makes it possible to host several
software criticality levels in the same
computer. Most significantly it allows
critical and non-flight critical application
software to be kept completely apart.
With many current avionics systems almost
every avionics change forces the user to
reverify the entire aircraft each time, to
ensure that flight safety functions have
not been affected. With Gripen NG, those
critical functions are never touched when
a user adds new operational capabilities to
the aircraft. This makes the upgrade and
modification schedule speedy, and much
less expensive.
The use of open standards across all aspects
of the avionics core computer system (i.e.
ARINC 653, MIL-STD-1553 and Ethernet),
provides easier and cheaper development of
functions to customers and partners, with
none of the expense and complication of
propriety solutions.
Design for Availability
Reliable avionics system operation is
supported by independently-powered
computers and networks/databuses. This
‘distributed system’ provides for much
greater redundancy and security in the air.
The incorporation of COTS equipment,
with a proven high mean time between
failure (MTBF) reliability rate, further
ensures that the system stays up and
running – and significantly reduces maintenance
demands. The latest generation
of COTS hardware has significantly
better MTBF than today’s bespoke hardware.
All application software is divided into
ARINC 653 partitions. If one partition
fails then the others will generally not,
as they are supported by independent
systems This ensures a robust and faulttolerant
system, that is better able to cope
with the real-world demands of service life.
Design for Obsolescence and Growth
Gripen NG introduces a significant increase
in processing, memory and data
communications capacity over any current
generation avionics systems. This will
support all current needs and – critically –
any future growth in sensors, weapons and
networked-enabled capability.
The bespoke hardware of current generation
avionics computer systems becomes
obsolete and expensive to replace. Gripen
NG avionics use COTS hardware from
vendors with a published development
road map for their equipment. This ensures
that the hardware supplier will be able
to continually upgrade the equipment.
Equally, open standards design makes it
easy to replace hardware with an alternative
system should that ever be required. This
is another benefit of the ARINC 653
compatible operating system, which isolates
application software from the hardware.
Design for Performance
From the very beginning, Gripen NG’s
avionics core computer system is designed
with performance and growth in mind.
COTS hardware will always deliver the
best levels of performance available on the
market. Switched Ethernet, with a bit rate of
up to 1 Gbit/sec, drives the high-speed main
core network. Commercial development of
Ethernet will ensure that band width in the
main network will increase in the future.
http://www.gripen.com/NR/rdonlyres/FCB6 ... _final.pdf