Arie Egozi / Tel Aviv
Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) has used elements of its Ehud air combat manoeuvring instrumentation system to develop a secure network that fuses military and civil aircraft positional information and distributes it to air traffic controllers and pilots simultaneously.
Developed under a co-operation agreement with Astronautics, Diehl and Eurocontrol, the SkyMaster system was successfully demonstrated at a German air force base last November, when navigational data from military aircraft carrying Ehud pods was relayed to a ground command-and-control station.
The real-time tracking capability based on the Ehud system’s datalink receives position data and transmits it to military and civil aircraft equipped with satellite or basic communication systems. Ehud is also operational on the ground, so the system can track aircraft on runways, enhancing ramp safety, says IAI.
The demonstration showed a significant improvement in the ability to enhance flight safety, says IAI.
Source: Flight International