Raytheon is anticipating a decision from an undisclosed US customer “before the end of the year” on the full-scale purchase of the airborne variant of its Boomerang shooter detection system.
The unnamed military customer has the agreed funding for the protection system as part of a wider weapon system upgrade for the helicopter involved.
“We are nearing the end of the developmental testing,” says Roy Azevedo, vice-president of advanced concepts and technology at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
“We have a US military customer, which has funded and procured systems, and funded developmental testing. That has occurred in the last year, and we are anticipating a positive decision that would lead to further procurement.”
Boeing
Boomerang is a microphone-based shooter detection system that has previously been utilised in vehicle- or soldier-mounted guises.
The technology was transferred to the rotorcraft filed last year, and although Azevedo admits that having hostile fire indication on-board helicopters is not new, an acoustic-based system distinguishes it from other types of infrared-based protection.
"The advantages we tout, and I believe results will validate this, is that with [infrared] systems the numbers of errors tend to be higher,” Azevedo says. “With acoustics we are able to discriminate to lower numbers of false alarms."
Previous testing has been carried out on-board the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing CH-47 Chinook rotorcraft - both of which are operated by the US Army - under funding provided by both the US Department of Defense and Raytheon.
The technology will be applied to other helicopter types over time, says Azevedo, although integration times will vary depending on configuration. Ideally, says Azevedo, Raytheon would participate with in the design process of new helicopters to be able to integrate the system from the beginning.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
