Technical evaluation of the AH-1W Cobra Communication/Navigation Upgrade

A technical evaluation of the AH-IW Communication/Navigation Upgrade was conducted at Patuxent River, Maryland, China Lake, California, and aboard the USS Boxer (LHD-4) between 20 April to 24 August 1996. 340 ground test hours and 50 flight test hours were used to evaluate the effectiveness and performance of the upgrade.

The Comm/Nav Upgrade replaced the existing AN/ARC-182 radios, AN/ARN- 118 TACAN receiver, AN/APN-217(V) 3 Doppler Navigation Radar and AN/ASN-75B gyrocompass with HaveQuick & SfNCGARS-capable AN/ARC-210 radios. AN/ARN-153(V)4 TACAN receiver and Embedded Global Positioning System/ Inertial Navigation System (EGl). The Cobra lA Operational Flight Program software was designed to support new hardware and correct many of the existing deficiencies with the communication and navigation system.

The Comm/Nav Upgrade provided significant improvements in communication capabilities, navigation performance, and Night Targeting System interface. Three enhancing characteristics were identified: 1) the ease with which Anti-Jam communication nets were initialized; 2) the well implemented EGI alignment initialization process; and, 3) the highly accurate EGI for navigation. The Comm/Nav Upgrade also corrected many existing software deficiencies, however, the degraded pilot and copilot performance due to excessive workload associated with the Comm/Nav interface remains a major deficiency. Six minor deficiencies were identified that should be corrected as soon as practicable. Eight minor annoyances were identified which should be avoided in future designs.

The Comm/Nav Upgrade demonstrated excellent potential AH-IW attack helicopter mission and is recommended for implementation into the Fleet Marine Force aircraft.

This thesis addresses the test results from this program. Human engineering of the communication/navigation interface are discussed, presenting enhancing characteristics, deficiencies and potential solutions for those deficiencies. Performance results of the AN/ARC-210 radios, the EGI navigation system, and the AN/ARN-153(V)4 TACAN set are also presented.