Bae Systems Trials Ground Fire Warner

摘要

BAE Systems' Survivability and Protection Systems unit is developing an acoustic hostile-fire indicator (HFI) to protect low-flying helicopters from small-arms fire. HFI programme manager Bill Ashe told Jane's that, while most aircraft already have some form of missile warning and countermea-sures capability, they are still highly vulnerable to small-arms fire. Indeed, some estimates state that around 20 per cent of recent US operational helicopter crashes have been the result of small-arms fire and a further 40 per cent have been knocked down by rocket propelled grenades, neither of which will be detected or countered by traditional defensive aid suites. The only real way to detect and warn against incoming small-arms fire at present is through crew vigilance, which is less practical in some of the most aggressive helicopters actively going into harm's way - such as the AH-64 Apache variants in-theatre - because they have smaller crews and less all-round visibility than some of the larger helicopters.