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The two-seat F-158 was modified by McDonnell Douglas for the USAF's IFFC-I/Firefly Ill flight test program. The aircraft has a number of internal modifications, the only external difference is the Martin Marietta ATLIS II laser/TV tracker pod fitted to the forward port Sparrow station. Flight tests were being carried out by the USAF Flight Dynamics Laboratoryand Avionics Laboratory at Edwards AFB. The aircraft is being flown by pilots of the Air Force Flight Test Centre and Air Force Tactical Fighter Weapons Centre in both air-to-air and air-to-ground manoeuvres. Some of the published results are quite interesting, for instance, an IFFC coupled automatic attack with live 20 mm ammunition, on a towed target (2. 7G, 945 m range, 30 deg aspect angle) yielded 18 hits out of 110 rounds fired (1. 1 sec firing time at 6000 rds/ min), enough to put any fighter out of action.
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Integrated Flight and Fire Control
The last three decades have seen airborne weaponry vastly increase its lethality, with both air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons becoming far more accurate and effective. A closer examination will also quickly reveal why this has occurred, as the once ‘dumb’ weapons became ‘smart’ weapons, with their own guidance systems, relying less and less on the judgement of the man pressing the trigger on his control column. There was a price to pay, though, the weapons became more and more expensive, they also became susceptible to electronic and other counter-measures. In an environment where switching on one’s radar is as good as saying ‘Here I am, come and get me. . . ‘, many modern air and air-ground weapons become less effective than they could be, otherwise.
In the event of smaller conflicts, the use of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) really presents little of a problem, as adequate stockpiles of guided weapons are readily available, also an enemy who has little experience combating a weapon is also likely to have ineffective, if any, counter-measures. This situation will not persist, particularly in the case of a protracted, large-scale conflict. The use of advanced anti-radiation missiles and ECM is likely to limit the use of radar-guided weapons. A densely knit air defence network will make offensive support and interdiction missions far more dangerous. Add to that the high cost of PGMs and air-air missiles (AAMs), stocks also running low, and a quite serious situation will develop.
The principal cause of this potential problem lies in the fact that the last three decades have really seen little change in weapon delivery techniques – the increase in accuracy is principally due to the weapons acquiring guidance, little attention has been paid to achieving pinpoint accuracy with cheap and unsophisticated munitions, such as the free fall bomb or the cannon shell. The integration of flight and fire control systems promises to do exactly that, at relatively low cost, improving an aircraft’s capability in both air-air and air-ground missions.
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