By B.C. Kessner
Britain’s Ultra Electronics Precision Air Systems business unit plans to increase the momentum its High Pressure Pure Air Generators (HiPPAG) has gathered through recent sales while expanding offerings for additional platforms and emerging niches.
“These are innovative technologies that have been used in mission critical applications for more than 12 years for the U.S. Navy and other customers worldwide,” Andy Yates, Ultra’s managing director for Precision Air Systems, told sister publication Defense Daily recently.
Ultra recently received orders from Diehl BGT Defence to provide systems for the Infra Red Imaging System Tail/Thrust Vector Controlled, Surface Launched (IRIS-T SL) missile program, the company said last week. Precision Air Systems will develop HiPPAG as the Cooling Gas Compressor Unit and supply solenoid valves for gas distribution to the missile Infrared (IR) detectors.
The Navy recently confirmed that Precision Air Systems has also recently landed a $6.3 million order for 150 HiPPAGs for Navy Boeing [BA] F/A-18E/F aircraft, raising the total number purchased by the Navy to more than 2,500.
Ultra’s compact on-board gas solutions are used for stores ejection and release systems, cryogenic cooling systems for missile seekers, and pneumatic systems. More than 5,000 HiPPAGs are in service aboard sea, air, and land platforms worldwide, the company said.
On IRIS-T SL, HiPPAG and solenoid valves in the launch vehicle are designed to enable the missiles to continuously protect land assets from a variety of hostile air threats, by providing an uninterrupted supply of high purity compressed air used by the missile seeker cooling system.
“As a longstanding supplier of pneumatic components for the air-to-air version of the IRIS-T missile, we are delighted to be selected for this latest evolution of the IRIS-T family of systems,” Yates said.
The IRIS-T SL will be integrated as the complementary ground-based, medium-range air defense missile system for Germany, in the tri-national MEADS air defense program under contract by the United States, Germany and Italy.
According to Ultra, HiPPAG is also the only qualified airborne pure air compressor system in military service. It eliminates the need to change out nitrogen bottles post- mission and reduces the storage and charging supply chain requirements of traditional bottle systems, the company added.
HiPPAG is installed on the LAU-127 and LAU-7 weapons launchers aboard the F/A-18 to provide a continuous source of high purity compressed air as a cooling source for AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles.
“HiPPAG has flown more than three million hours in high performance aircraft and under extreme conditions, including current tactical operations,” Yates said. “It is easy to maintain and its reliability is truly world-class.”
The system is the only pure air compressor system to have passed the rigorous and demanding qualification tests required by the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon, four F/A-18 variants, European missile consortium MBDA’s Trigat Anti-Tank missile, and Boeing’s Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program, where it generates high pressure gas to pneumatically release SDBs from F-15 aircraft.
HiPPAG is also a potential non-pyrotechnic ejection power source for future multipurpose weapon carriage and release racks.
Ultra’s Precision Air System plans to expand offerings in complete high pressure and lower pressure pneumatic systems for airborne and other applications including chaff dispensing, flare dispensing, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear detection, oxygen systems, inert gas systems and other mission critical pneumatic systems, the company told sister publication Defense Daily recently.