Military Avionics - STA, Communications and Navigation

What you will learn

On successful completion of the course you will be able to:

• Describe the operation of avionic communications, radar and electro-optic sensors and displays and navigation systems, relating the performance of such systems to design characteristics and parameters and to the environment,
• Identify the main electronic support and attack threats to airborne radar and electro-optic sensors and communication systems and propose defence measures to counter these threats,
• Analyse and evaluate the effect of an electronic attack on an avionics system (communications, radar and electro-optic sensors) and quantify the impact of electronic defence.

Core content

Military airborne radar

Introduction; comparison with other sensors; bands of operation; pulse ranging; low PRF pulsed parameters; detection theory; radar cross section; noise and clutter; pulse Doppler techniques; tracking radar; applications – Airborne FCR/AI, AEW, SAR/GMTI, altimeters. 

Airborne radar EW

Basic concepts; signal intercept; noise jammers; stealers; passive decoys (chaff); active decoys; EA against tracking radars; ED of tracking radars. 

Digital and satellite communications

Introduction to analogue voice communications for air-to-air and air-to-ground communications; frequency bands used, propagation, link budget calculations, types of military radio system in common use; introduction to digital communications on airborne platforms; modern military digital radio systems, e.g. Saturn, Havequick etc.; introduction to cryptography, platform-mounted-antennas at HF, VHF and UHF; introduction to satellite communications – basic concepts, Skynet IV and V, satellite communications to airborne platforms. 

Communications EW

Introduction to Communications EW; overview of methods of surveillance, attack and defence; examples of application of Comms EW in airborne systems. 

Airborne EO/IR sensors

EO/IR in context; basic optics; atmospheric propagation; signature and scene generation, thermal imagers. 

Laser 

Directed energy weapons and directed infrared countermeasures (DEW and DIRCM / LIRCM). Active laser sensing (LIDAR / LADAR). 

Displays

(head up/down, helmet) Generic types, head-up, head-down, helmet mounted. 

GPS 

Principles of operation of GPS; errors; signal structure; EW vulnerabilities; modernisation programme. 

Inertial Navigation

Inertial Sensors – accelerometers, angle and rate gyroscopes; inertial navigation – principles of stable platform and strapdown INS; co-ordinate systems – local level (LLIN) and space stable (SSIN) systems; inertial, earth and geodetic based coordinate bases; GPS/INS integration. 

Terrain based navigation Introduction

The need for terrain based systems; methods  TerCoM (Terrain Contour Matching), DSMAC (Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation), TCM (Terrain Characteristic Matching). 

Upgrade to a professional qualification

When taken as a Short Course for Credit, 10 credit points can be put towards the Military Aerospace and Airworthiness MSc.

Find out more about short course credit points.

Who should attend

Speakers

• Dr Alessio Balleri
• Professor Mark Richardson

Concessions

A limited number of MOD sponsored places are available and must complete the course for credits only. 

Location and travel

Cranfield Defence and Security (CDS) is a Cranfield School based at the Ministry of Defence establishment on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire borders.

Shrivenham itself lies in the picturesque Vale of the White Horse, close to the M4 motorway which links London and South Wales. It is 7 miles from Swindon, the nearest town, which lies off the M4 at the hub of Britain’s motorway network.

Bath, Cheltenham, Bristol and Oxford are all within an hour’s drive and London less than two hours away by car.

All visitors must be pre-booked in at reception by the person they are visiting on the campus.

For further location and travel details