By Bradley Hicks, AEDC/PA / Published February 16, 2021
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M.
Throughout 2020, the 704th Test Group’s Operating Location AA, part of the Directed Energy Combined Test Force, or DE CTF, focused much of its effort on the testing of weapons designed to prevent adversarial drone observation and assault.
The latest system tested, the High Energy Laser Weapon System 2, also known as HELWS2 or H2, is a counter-Unmanned Aerial System (c-UAS) directed energy weapon (DEW).
H2 was tested as part of a directed energy experiment that began in the spring of 2020 and was managed by the Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation, or SDPE, office. This experiment has involved taking commercial off the shelf systems and deploying them to several Combatant Commands, or COCOMs, for training, testing and evaluation for a one-year period.
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US Air Force performs F-16 rain-induced pilot degraded visibility test
03 February 2021
by Pat Host
The US Air Force (USAF) completed a rain-induced, pilot degraded visual environment (DVE) test with a Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon in December 2020.
The F-16 system programme office has been trying to address an issue with rain pooling on the canopy of the aircraft and reducing pilot visibility. Pilots try to avoid flying through inclement weather, but pop-up storms present an unavoidable risk. Field testing provides limited opportunities to gather data on proposed solutions because pilots avoid flying in such conditions.
The test team for the F-16 canopy water pooling visibility test stand beside the test article in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex’s 12x24 m test section on 1 December 2020. The USAF used the wind tunnel to test how to address rain pooling on the aircraft’s canopy and reducing pilot visibility. (NASA)