Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1994

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Aviation Systems

Major Professor

R. Richards

Committee Members

Charles Pludan, Uwe Peter Solies

Abstract

The United States Navy has begun efforts to integrate a precision targeting system onto the F-14 Tomcat to meet the Navy's precision ground attack requirements. As part of this effort, the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division was tasked to conduct a preliminary analysis of the structural compatibility and integration feasibility of the Martin Marietta, Low Altitude Navigation Targeting Infra-Red for Night (LANTIRN) Targeting Forward Looking Infra-Red (TFLIR) pod on the F-14 Tomcat. Navy officials believe that a production TFLIR pod could simply be "bolted on", "plugged in" and "turned on" to give the Tomcat a full precision strike capability. The scope of the Navy's LANTIRN test program was limited accordingly to determine whether the pod would be structurally compatible within the F-14 flight envelope. The pod and aircraft were instrumented to collect vibration and acoustic load data as the aircraft was maneuvered throughout the F-14 flight envelope. Navy F-14 aircrew and Martin Marietta engineers formed a test team to study pod integration on the F-14 using a variety of integration methods. Although no analysis of the pod structure was conducted, it was presumed that if the vibro-acoustic load data measured on the F-14, were less than or equal to the loads previously measured on the F-15E, which currently carries the LANTIRN, then the pod would be assumed structurally compatible on the F-14. Though the Navy's program scope was focused on determining structural compatibility, the author was able to investigate several integration options and draw conclusions as to how best to integrate the system in the future. Within the guidelines of the test, the pod was determined to be structurally compatible, however, as the test was conducted using several integration options, numerous issues were raised which warranted further study before the pod could be considered fully compatible. Several pod mounting methods and station locations were studied to determine integration effects on pod field of regard, pod-to-aircraft boresighting, resolution and performance. The results of this study concluded that the integration of the LANTIRN pod on the F- 14's wing or fuselage station would result in an obscured field of regard which would limit aircraft maneuverability, increase exposure to hostile fire and may result in the loss of the F-14 during ground attack missions. The obscured field of regard is a major issue which should lead to the investigation of other integration locations. The integration methods which were evaluated, appeared to induce excessive boresight errors which would in turn make it difficult for aircrew to acquire targets prior to weapon release. Though quantitative analysis of the pod's resolution and performance appeared satisfactory, all tests were conducted against large, fixed targets of known position and further study should be conducted using small, mobile targets while actually conducting PGM delivery, to further determine the suitability of the different methods of integration.

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