Modernized Target Acquisition Designation System Pilot Night Vision Sensor for the Apache

By Scott R. Gourley

As part of the Apache program update provided during the October AUSA Annual Meeting, Col. Mark Hayes, Apache Training and Doctrine Command systems manager, emphasized the contributions of the latest addition to the Apache system, the modernized target acquisition designation system/pilot night vision sensor (M-TADS/PNVS).

“M-TADS/PNVS helps us out in every way imaginable on a sensor,” Hayes said. “First and foremost, it gives us much clearer situational awareness of what the target is and what the target area is. That provides us safety and prevents fratricide, while providing more accuracy when we attack the target.”

M-TADS/PNVS is the modernized version of the target acquisition designation system/pilot night vision sensor mounted in the Apache helicopter. As the name implies, the sensor incorporates two major subsystems: one for targeting and one for pilotage.

As described by Bob Gunning, Apache EO Fire Control director, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, today’s M-TADS/PNVS is “a reflection of the modernized version for the forward looking infrareds (FLIRs), which is what we’re building today.”

He added that a third piece of the program is Arrowhead, which is the company’s trade name for the modernized line replaceable units and line replaceable modules that are installed to create M-TADS/PNVS.

At the present time, the company is working on three program tracks: supplying spare parts for current TADS/PNVS systems; producing Arrowhead kits for installation under the M-TADS/PNVS program; and producing complete new M-TADS/PNVS sensor systems for new production Apache aircraft.

“We realize that we’re at war and so our program is kind of split into two parts,” Gunning said. “We have half of the program that’s cranking out spares to support the system in the field at all the field locations in the United States, Europe, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo—wherever the Apaches are we have guys with them. And we’re building a lot of spares right now to keep the old systems flying.”

He added, “We’re shipping about 1,000 LRMs [line replaceable modules] for the current system out of the factory every month as well as the new systems that we’re supplying to the Army to retrofit; so we have a lot going on down here.”

Noting that the original TADS/PNVS systems were designed in 1978 and fielded in 1983, Gunning explained that those systems are approaching four-million operational hours.

“[That] is a pretty good benchmark for their time in the field and how well they have served,” he said. “But they’re basically just getting older and wearing out, while the new system is much more reliable and has many more performance benefits.”

Those new reliability and performance benefits reflect the priorities established in 2000 by Army Aviation planners who crafted a program for improvements to the Apache forward looking infrared.

According to Gunning, the Army’s priorities for the upgrade included: enhancing safety in both pilotage and targeting systems (targeting provides backup pilotage); reducing operation and support costs by 50 percent; and increasing the range at which the pilot could identify targets.

“We had a situation with the current system where, for the life of the system really, the weapons on the aircraft would go farther than the pilot could see and identify targets,” he said. “The problem then was that your standoff was lost. The advantage you had by staying out of the enemy’s range was lost because you had to get very close to see and put eyes on target. You could identify a blob and guess, maybe, that it was a tank. But you couldn’t be sure if it was a friendly tank or an enemy tank unless you got in a little bit closer, and now you were in shooting range.

“That’s not good, so we enhanced the standoff range and tried to equal the ranges of the weapon system.”
After winning the competition in 2000, Lockheed Martin conducted an engineering and manufacturing development effort that led to a major program milestone in June 2005, when the Army marked first unit equipped for M-TADS/PNVS at Fort Hood, Texas. The second unit to be equipped with M-TADS/PNVS finished deliveries and installation in the middle of November.

“The pilots are pretty excited about the new system. It does a lot of things for them, but, in a nutshell, they can see where they’re going a whole lot better at night, so their confidence is enhanced and their crew rest is much improved,” he said.

He quoted a senior service aviator who flew the new system and observed, “I used to fight to see but now I can see to fight.”

Another unexpected benefit that seems to be emerging from early M-TADS/PNVS experience involves reduced pilot individual training time.

“They are able to progress through the aircrew training manual readiness levels much more quickly, because they are not spending so much time on fighting to see,” Gunning said. “They are able to get in there; they’re comfortable with the system; they can fly it right away; they can see better; so they can progress through the individual training tasks faster and gain more proficiency.”

The process seems to facilitate faster advancement to collective task training, with resulting benefits in combat efficiency and even the possibility of long-term savings in aviation fuel.

Although M-TADS/PNVS provides remarkable enhancements in both FLIR capabilities and associated electronics, Gunning noted that the dayside improvements are yet to come, based on firm requirements and available funding.

As far as dayside improvement requirements, he pointed to a recent workshop at Fort Rucker, Ala., that attempted to prioritize warfighter field input on the capability enhancements that should go into any dayside improvement program.

“As we replace the FLIRs with the M-TADS/PNVS system, we don’t do anything to the dayside,” he observed. “But we think we have a pretty good focus on what those requirements are now by virtue of that workshop and our ability to integrate it into the M-TADS/PNVS system as it stands.”

Although declining to offer any fielding specifics, Gunning noted, “What I’m allowed to say is that the plan is to retrofit the entire fleet between now and 2011. I think we’ll be done before that, because the plan is to increase our rate from our current seven a month to a much higher rate so that we can field more quickly.”

Referring to the much repeated field observation that “When Apaches fly, soldiers don’t die,” Gunning added that it reflected the capabilities of the complete system.

“It’s a great quote and I tell the folks in the factory that we’re part of that team,” he said. “We’re partnered with the guys who fly and maintain as well as the guys who have boots on the ground, because our system protects them.”