EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVE VS PASSIVE COUNTERMEASURES

CURRENT AND FUTURE ROTORCRAFT SCENARIOS SUCH AS THE LHX STRESS THE NEED FOR SURVIVABLE OPERATIONS OVER, AROUND, AND THROUGH HOSTILE AIR DEFENSES. KEY TO SATISFYING THIS REQUIREMENT IS REDUCTION OF IR AND RF OBSERVABLES. PROPONENTS OF REDUCED OBSERVABLES TEND TO ARGUE FOR COMPLETE REDUCTION OF RCS TO AVOID DETECTION. ON THE OTHER HAND, THE AIRFRAME DESIGNER IS CONCERNED WITH DEVELOPMENT OF PLATFORM THAT WILL MEET A MULTITUDE OF SPECIFIED OPERATIONAL AND FLIGHT PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS. OFTEN THESE REQUIREMENTS CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE IS REQUIRED. FURTHER, ACTIVE AND PASSIVE COUNTERMEASURES ALSO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF REDUCED SIGNATURES TO IMPROVE THEIR EFFECTIVENESS. TO FULLY REALIZE THE SURVIVABILITY BENEFITS THAT CAN BE ACCRUED REQUIRES QUANTIFICATION OF THESE DESIGN TRADEOFFS THROUGH ANALYTICAL CODE WITH SYSTEMATIC METHODOLOGIES TO EVALUATE BENEFITS. THIS METHODOLOGY MUST DETERMINISTICALLY REPRESENT NUMEROUS ROTORCRAFT/THREAT INTERACTIONS TO IDENTIFY AREAS WHERE IMPROVEMENTS IN OBSERVABLE REDUCTION WOULD OPTIMIZE SURVIVABILITY AND MISSION EFFECTIVENESS. FOR THIS SBIR, SPECTRA RESEARCH (S*R) PROPOSES TO PERFORM THE REQUIRED INTEGRATED COUNTERMEASURE EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS FOR THE PRIMARY THREATS AND SCENARIOS OF INTEREST WITH A GRAPHIC WORK-STATION. THIS TOOL WILL DEVELOP ENGINEERING DATA FOR SYSTEM HARDWARE PERFORMANCE TRADE-OFFS RELATED TO OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS. THIS EFFORT WILL INVESTIGATE THE RADIO FREQUENCY (RF) AND INFRARED (IR) SIGNATURES AND BOTH ACTIVE AND PASSIVE COUNTERMEASURES.