Proposed improvement of system status displays for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft

The gradual decline in Department of Defense weapons procurement dollars combined with increased weapon system costs has lead to reduced purchases of new tactical aircraft. In an effort to reduce costs and become more efficient, the services have chosen to procure multi-role tactical fighter aircraft. Each new aircraft takes the place of two or more single-mission, previous generation aircraft and the missions they performed. The modern multi-role aircraft, such as the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-15E Strike Eagle, are tasked with execution of numerous Air-to-Ground (A/G), Air-to-Air (A/A), and Suppression Of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) missions. These aircraft utilize complex weapon and sensor suites, though specific weapon and sensor requirements vary widely from mission to mission.

The weapon and sensor suites of modern, multi-role tactical fighter aircraft consist of both offensive and defensive systems. The status of these systems must be assessed prior to flight to determine if the aircraft is fully capable to execute the mission tasking. Equipment Built-in Test (BIT) can provide detailed information to the aircrew as to system status, but this information is frequently difficult to interpret. System health information must be presented in a manner which will allow aircrew to make a critical GO / NO GO decision. BIT information should detail performance of each weapon or sensor function critical to mission execution. The BIT information also must be available in a timely fashion, particularly for United States Navy aircraft who operate under strict time constraints which limit time available to diagnose system degrades and failures.

This paper provides specific recommendations to improve the display of weapon and sensor status information in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. BIT display formats are modeled around the most recent FA-18 System Configuration Set (SOS), and apply to weapons and sensors carried on that platform. The goal of the display format improvements is to provide aircrew with timely presentation of weapon and sensor health in such a way that they can make educated GO / NO GO decisions. Information in this paper is UNCLASSIFIED, EXPORT CONTROLLED.