March 22, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Today modern militray aircrafts are mostly depend on GPS assisted INS system for navigation. Laser-ringed/fiberoptic INS have very good precision; and GPS has almost world wide coverage. And of course Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) with ASR/PAR has importance.
But, in wartime:
*GPS can be jammed
*GPS may not available due to US Government
*Communication between aircraft and ground control can be jammed
*PAR/ASR Can be jammed
so, what are the alternatives?
*Modern moving maps with advanced INS-only could be useful
*GPS can be augmented, other possible GNSS systems like Galileo or GLONASS; but this time combined antennas and reciever system should be developed.
*Ground based Differential GPS, could be alternative; but it will need spesific recievers for DGPS (mostly in VHF Band) or Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) for precision approach like American JPALS.
*Satellite based augmented GPS system like; WAAS and EGNOS could be alternative in the future.
*Radio Navigation? This could be very good alternative. Many military aircraft still has TACAN system; VOR/DME (civil aviation TACAN), ILS/TLS, ADF equipped aircrafts can use ND-Beacons; Microwave Landing System can be jam-resistant, Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) looks very innovative can be used together with future military IFF systems.
*Or like cruise missile aircrafts can find their position with RADAR Navigation/TERCOM or IR-Navigation/DSMAC, that use IR/Radar database and information gathered by aircraft.
So what do you think? What is the good solution? What kind of new avionics are needed now and the future?