Posted on 06/06/2005 12:20:47 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
ST. LOUIS, June 6, 2005— Boeing [NYSE: BA] received an $81 million contract for its second full-rate production contract of 401 Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing Systems (JHMCS).
First used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the JHMCS displays flight and targeting information on a helmet visor, allowing pilots to lock-on and attack air-to-air and air-to-ground targets simply by looking at the targets.
This capability enables pilots to launch weapons much more quickly, thereby significantly increasing both their effectiveness and survivability.
“Continued feedback from U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy pilots tells us that the JHMCS system is significantly increasing their combat capability,” said John Lieber, Boeing JHMCS Business Team Leader. “That increase in capability has resulted in a significant increase in the demand for the system, which poses a welcome challenge to dramatically increase our production capacity in order to meet our customers’ requirements.”
Boeing will deliver the JHMCS to the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard for use by F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots, to the U.S. Navy for use by F/A-18 Hornet pilots, and to six international air forces. JHMCS also displays aircraft altitude, airspeed, g’s and angle of attack on the visor, as well as tactical information, to increase the pilot’s awareness of the state of his aircraft and the combat situation.
Boeing is the prime contractor and integrator for JHMCS and Vision System International, based in San Jose, Calif., is the major subcontractor.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world’s largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $30.5 billion business. It provides network-centric system solutions to its global military, government, and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems; the world’s largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world’s largest satellite manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA’s largest contractor; and a global leader in sustainment solutions and launch services.
The Russians have some cheesy version of this tied to the fire control systems aboard the Mig-29. A real POS, but at least they made the attempt.
BA ping
Next step: "pilot" sitting back at base with the armed-to-the-teeth drone, bringing justice to the emeny.
In Hoc? A Sig are we?
82 mil for helmets?
can you say "overkill"
we're spending one billion dollars a month to clean out a sand box full of snakes and we can't even locate a 6'4" camel jockey after almost 3 friggin' years???
is there something wrong with this picture or what?
I am.
Maybe the helmets will help?
This is old technology. MicroVision (MVIS) has stuff that produces far better quality a picture, weighs much less and cost only a small fraction as much to make. But Boeing has one thing MicroVision does not have, and that is big time lobby bucks.
We had VTAS in the F-4 when I was a young lootnik. Very cumbersome and almost worthless unless everybody used it. You had to force the ops/supply/maintencance system to make it work, but many wouldn't do it because they were just waiting for the Phantoms to go away.
Battlefield contacts. Able to provide situational awareness and mitigate the fog of war. Coming soon to U.S. SOF. Wave of the future.
From my understanding their using the old F-4s (An exceptionally good aircraft, I must say) to train nuggets at Tyndal now. USAF, NAVY, Marine pilot? What was your old squad?Wing? etc.
Hollywood simulated such a thing in "Firefox" - the movie about an American pilot who steals a Russian jet. And .. it used speech to launch missles.
I still love that movie and I watch it everytime it's on.
That is just what I need to pilot my starfighter.
Great...the ability to kill someone simply by looking at them.
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