May 1, 2001

Military Systems: The Cobra’s New Bite

Here’s the best advice to any opposing military force that finds the United States Marines crossing onto its beach: Run away as fast as you can.

by Shannon Bower

MILITARY COMMANDERS EVERYWHERE hold to a basic axiom: "The odds of winning any battle substantially increase if you see your opponent before your opponent sees you."

The U.S. Marine Corps, with the help of Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter Textron, have at least doubled their odds in battle with the Hawkeye Target Sight System AAQ-30 weapons targeting system on the new AH-1Z Super Cobra.

Over the past few decades, the Marines have proven the effectiveness and reliability of the Bell Cobra series. Now, the Bell-Lockheed Martin team has produced a sensor/weapons system that will yield better tactical and strategic results.

Developed by Lockheed Martin, Hawkeye is an off-the-shelf system that is cost-effective and reliable. More than 70% of the Hawkeye’s 20-inch, 185-pound package represents battle-proven technology.

The unit uses the Wescam 20 gimbal system, which Lockheed Martin also is fitting on U.S. Navy P-3C Orion antisubmarine patrol aircraft. The Wescam 20 serves as the Orion’s primary long-distance detection and surveillance system.

A gyrostabilized world

Wescam has long been known for its development and use of gyrostabilized, long-lens camera systems. The whole point of stabilization is to allow the use of bigger and more powerful camera lenses. To put it simply, it is easier to hold 7x binoculars steady than 10x binoculars. Now try to hold steady in your hands a 60x or 100x telescope; it’s extremely difficult. Again, mount the same telescope to a vibrating helicopter and try to hold it steady. Without gyrostabilization, the task becomes all but impossible.

My first experience with gyrostabilization was flying with the Pasadena Police Department Air Support Unit in Southern California. I was ferrying a helicopter to California and stopped in to see them with my father, Ron Bower, who had helped them with the purchase of their first JetRanger. In an effort to reduce the effects of the helicopter’s vibration, some clever person mounted a one-pound gyro on a pair of binoculars so the observer could read license plates from the air.

The best way to comprehend the vibration reduction and stability of the Wescam 20 platform is to go look at a large rock, half buried in the ground, and note that it jiggles very little, which is why the Wescam motto is: "Rock-Solid."

Wescam 20’s stability is what puts the "Hawk" in Hawkeye; the "eye" is a third-generation infrared imaging system that has an unprecedented 8.5-inch aperture.

One of the many awe inspiring examples used in the demonstration at Lockheed is looking through the Hawkeye Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) from their Electronics & Missiles facility to a building in downtown Orlando, Florida, 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) away.

After zooming in through the various fields of view, downtown Orlando was no longer a white speck on the screen. Instead, using the Hawkeye’s enhanced magnification, we had a view from eight miles that an earlier generation FLIR would have only been able to provide while flying through downtown.

This technology enables an observer to find such details as company logos on the building, individual windows, seams in the external building materials, and even specific rooftop antennas.

The military implications are enormous. If, for example, an opposing sniper were perched on the top of this building, a Hawkeye operator could identify him at tremendous distance and drop a missile in his lap before he could see the helicopter.

Now to all of the infrared (IR) users and operators out there, I know what you’re probably saying right now: "There is no way a FLIR can see that far." Lockheed knew that most of the potential buyers would say that, so they mounted the Hawkeye on a Bell 222, provided by Roy Henley, owner of Universal Air Service, to serve as a demonstrator.

Demos sell

The Lockheed Team dubbed the helicopter "Airwolf," after the 1980’s television series about a high-tech helicopter that also happened to be a 222. Lockheed’s Van Gray mounted the Hawkeye System to the Universal Air Service’s 222, building from scratch (with FAA approval) the brackets, racks and fittings to brace the Hawkeye during its official roll-out and first 50-hour block of demonstration flights.

"Demos sell" is the basic fact of marketing and selling if you have a product that is clearly beyond other available products. My father and I were invited to fly the system and see for ourselves how the system works.

Joe Elmer, of Lockheed Martin, was our gracious host. Joe gave us a thorough briefing on the Hawkeye and then introduced us to some of his team.

Greg Deitrick, the engineering "keeper of the knowledge," showed us how they had retrofitted the 222 and made it into their Airwolf (without the weapons). The aft facing seats had been removed from the 222 and replaced with a large but clean installation of racks to hold the assorted black boxes, computers, and monitors required to operate, record, and view the extensive capabilities of the Hawkeye.

Because I have experience with gimbal-mounted systems, Deitrick and I sat in the back to test fly the Hawkeye while Henley and my father started the aircraft. Once the rotors were turning, we fired up the Hawkeye and performed some operations drills.

It was already dark when we started the drills, so we left the daylight camera alone and concentrated on infrared operations. The Lockheed Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) laser designator also was removed and replaced with a dummy of correct weight and proportions. With almost a thousand LANTIRN modules in the field, confidence is high that the laser designator will do its job.

Once airborne, Deitrick showed me how to autotrack using a Boeing 727 jet airliner as a test target. The 727 had just taken off from the international airport and was approximately 13 miles away. The Hawkeye tracked it for about six miles with easy recognition and then I selected new targets. Deitrick said that it would have tracked for a very long time had I not deselected the target.

When I selected new targets—note the plural—I had three on the display and all with calculated firing solutions. In the briefing, Joe Elmer told me that the system can track up to 10 ground targets by remembering or being told their lat/long coordinates so that the aircraft commander can pre-plan some of the more exciting portions of the flight.

The same black box that tracks the targets also works out the firing solutions and ranges the targets. Once the targets are ranged, their lat/long positions are computed and instantaneously made available to all the onboard weapons systems. This position data also is sent to any "friendlies" on the datalink network, including any GPS-guided weapons that happen to be in the area.

The Hawkeye receives information as easily as it gives it. With the Target Pre-Point feature, the Hawkeye automatically points to a stored or downloaded target position at the push of a button.

During our flight, we were not downloading targets or shooting at hostile artillery, so we spent a good deal of time in surveillance mode. We were able to detect, recognize and identify self-appointed targets from significant stand-off distances.

Obviously, the Hawkeye system is ideal for scout or armed reconnaissance helicopters, and Lockheed is willing to go the distance. "We are ready to help all the services put them on every helicopter in the inventory," says Terry Carsten, director of Lockheed Martin’s Fire Control Development Program.

The Cobra sheds its old skin

The AH-1Z is the latest and most capable Cobra yet. The twin-engine "Zulu Cobra" has come a long way from the original version of an early Bell "Huey Cobra," which was a single-engine Huey utility helicopter compacted into an attack helicopter just 36 inches wide.

Bell Helicopter Textron Chairman and CEO Terry Stinson says initial acquisition cost was only one factor in the company’s recent victory in Turkey’s 145-ship, $4.5 billion ATAK competition.

"Sure, the Zulu Cobra is less expensive than its competitors, but we won the Turkish bid on technical merit, not on price," Stinson says. "When you compare the performance of the aircraft, the Hawkeye Targeting System and the weapons systems, apples-to-apples, no competitor’s aircraft comes close. The Marines are going to have a serious advantage over their enemy."

Stinson points out that there is no other targeting system available that can see the distances that the Zulu crews can see with the Hawkeye. "This ship will save lives and accomplish missions," he says.

The Cobra also has a strong reputation with the general public, largely promulgated by its media exposure. In Desert Storm, Marine Cobras were shown hitting targets with pinpoint accuracy. Several years later, they were shown as the lead and escort for the recovery of Capt. Scott O’Grady after he ejected from his F-16 fighter. Most recently, the Israelis have demonstrated, both at home and on CNN, the effectiveness of the Cobra in the anti-terrorism role.

In a kinder, gentler society where the media and the public-at-large have forgotten that casualties usually are a by-product of conflict, no one wants battle deaths—least of all those who fight and the commanders who send them. However, they are part of the reality of war. A significant advantage of the extended stand-off range of the Hawkeye is that it allows helicopter crews to avoid or reduce the risk of becoming casualties themselves.

Finding the enemy

The Chinese warrior/philosopher Sun Tzu wrote, "Know your enemy." He also said, "Know where your enemy is." The Hawkeye allows Cobras to detect, recognize and identify targets or tactical threats, then deal with them—long before they are within the detection range themselves.

"One other interesting note about the Hawkeye is that this may be the first sighting system developed in recent history that can see farther, especially at night, than the weapons it can shoot," points out Carsten, the director of the Fire Control Development Program.

No longer will an aircraft have to sneak to within four kilometers to shoot a missile that has a range of eight kilometers, just to identify a target. The extra four-kilometer buffer will make a difference in the safe return from enemy territory.

As the mission for the Marines and the Cobra expands and diversifies, the airframe and weapons systems will now have the unique opportunity to grow into the targeting system.

Certainly, the United States has the technology to build a missile of average size that has a range greater than eight kilometers. However, no one has bothered to put one on a helicopter because helicopters could not see that far—until now.

There is one last segment of the "who can see and shoot the farthest" equation: Most low-level defensive weapons systems in the world today also have an average range of eight kilometers.

Once the effective ranges of weapons on attack helicopters are increased, the enemy will have no choice but to spend a great deal of money upgrading. For militaries that fail to upgrade their battlefield defenses, the consequences of that failure could be devastating.

In fact, the ability to shoot accurately from 20 km may constitute a strong deterrence in many potential conflicts. If deterrence fails, however, then it’s best to make sure you "know where your enemy is" at all times.

Shannon Bower is vice president and chief pilot for Bower Helicopter, Inc., in Austin, Texas. He has 6,000 hours total time in helicopters and high-performance, fixed-wing aircraft, and is a dual ATP. Readers can reach him by e-mail at shannon@bowerhelicopter.com.