Raytheon Collins Aerospace asked to build ARN-153 tactical air navigation receiver transmitter avionics
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. – U.S. military avionics experts needed tactical air navigation receiver-transmitters for a variety of Air Force aircraft. They found their solution from Raytheon Technologies Corp.
Officials of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in Warner Robins, Ga., announced a $12 million contract to the Raytheon Collins Aerospace segment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last week to build ARN-153 Tactical Air Navigation receiver transmitters.
The AN/ARN-153, which Collins Aerospace calls the TCN-500, is an airborne receiver-transmitter component of the Tactical Airborne Navigation (TACAN) avionics system. It measures the slant-range distance and relative bearing to a selected ground station or an airborne beacon and computes velocity and time-to-go to that station.
The TCN-500 has been installed in cargo, fighter, bomber, trainer, and rotary-wing aircraft for the U.S. military services and for militaries around the world.
The AN/ARN-153(V) supports four modes of operation: receive mode; transmit-receive mode; air-to-air receive mode; and air-to-air transmit-receive mode.
When used with the optional 938Y-1 rotating antenna and a control unit, the receiver-transmitter system also provides bearing to an air-to-air TACAN that is transmitting an unmodulated squitter, and bearing to DME-only ground stations.
Digital interfaces include dual MIL-STD-1553B buses and ARINC 429, 568, or 582 buses providing range, bearing, frequency, velocity, and time-to-station.
For more information contact Raytheon Collins Aerospace online at www.rtx.com/our-company/our-businesses/ca, or the Defense Logistics Agency-Warner Robins at www.dla.mil/Distribution/Locations/WarnerRobins.
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John Keller
Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.