By Ann Roosevelt
Longbow LLC, a Lockheed Martin [LMT]-Northrop Grumman [NOC] joint venture, yesterday delivered to the Army the 400th Longbow Fire Control Radar (FCR) for the Boeing [BA] AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
The Longbow FCR provides Apache crews with automatic and rapid multi-target engagement–detecting, locating, classifying and prioritizing the targets.
“These capabilities and more combine to enhance the Apache lethality four-fold and the survivability seven-fold,” Jerry Garman, Lockheed Martin director of Longbow programs and Longbow LLC president, said in a teleconference. “The FCR is saving lives in the fiefld as we speak.”
Longbow LLC received its first Longbow FCR production contract in 1995. The JV is under contract for deliveries to 2015, and forecasts deliveries out to 2020, Garman said.
The basic Longbow FCR configuration has stayed about the same though they are always looking for weight savings, Garman said. With Block III, as part of weight reduction, they took two units and converted them into one radar electronic unit (REU), which is lighter. In the future, that might be made backwards compatible with the Block II aircraft, but that’s a decision for the future.
Steve Considine, Northrop Grumman director of Longbow programs and Longbow LLC vice president, said the Block III FCR is 20 percent lighter.
Col. Shane Openshaw, Army project manager, Apache attack helicopter, said weight reduction can be part of his office’s larger effort to tackle obsolescence or reliability issues.
Moving into 2011 and 2012, Garman said the joint venture will continue to transition its production lines to accommodate the next generation Apache Block III Longbow FCR builds.
For Block III, there is a next-generation radar with growth potential.
Considine said work started on the Block III electronics unit in 2005, after the conclusion of the multi-year production build of 227 units concluded.
“The radar electronics unit provides growth for additional radar modes and mode enhancements,” he said. “At the same time, we provided that growth: we took two line replaceable units and put them into one box so we saved both weight and space that was needed by the Block III platform.”
Openshaw said the FCR capability is what makes Apache Longbows different and more capable than any other attack helicopters in the world. It is an important capability for the United States and an array of foreign military sales customers.
“The focus as we look forward is always on keeping the aircraft and its capability ready and relevant, both to sustain the current capability that we have but evolve it and improve it to deal with evolving threats, different targets, different environments and matching it effectively with different capabilities that are being developed and fielded throughout our formations.”
New capabilities built into the fire control radar for Block III will include improved range, an improved target set and adding Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) interoperability capability.
Block III has Level IV UAS capability, or the ability to receive video to and from the cockpit and a UAV, the ability to contol the sensor payload and control where the UAV flies in orbit.
There’s a prototype capability in theater today, Apaches with Level II UAS capability, able to receive video from UAS to the cockpit and push it to a ground control station, Openshaw said.
The FCR is not always used in Afghanistan, but it’s mission dependent, Openshaw said.
“By and large, U.S. commanders are electing to take FCRs off of their aircraft and fly without them in that mission environment. Their choice is based on a weight tradeoff decision. Given the target set and the environment that the aircraft is operating in and the missions they’re flying, the FCR radar tends to be a less used tool and they need more fuel and ammunition to be able to support the kind of missions that they’re finding.