By John McHale
SAN DIEGO - Officials of the TRW Avionics Systems division in San Diego have delivered the first communications, navigation, and identification (CNI) avionics system to the U.S. Air Force for the Lockheed Martin F-22 jet fighter.
TRW engineers of the CNI avionics used a modular design process to build the system. The avionics system enables fighter pilots to navigate to and from targets, detect and avoid threats, and identify and communicate with friendly forces, TRW officials say.
TRW`s modular avionics design combines CNI into an integrated "rack" system, cutting size, weight and life cycle costs in half, TRW officials say. The system is capable of reconfiguring its components to counteract faults and failures - even those that battle damage causes.
Two-level maintenance is integrated into the design enabling maintenance crews to easily fault isolate and swap printed circuit cards on the flight line. The built-in test and fault isolation features of modular avionics reduces the time and cost of maintaining the system, TRW officials say.
"Prime contractor Lockheed Martin has asked us to lead several F-22 Process Improvement Programs," says Chuck Harman, director of CNI Systems for TRW.
"We have a powerful lead role in the development of CNI for the F-22, the [U.S. Army RAH-66] Comanche Helicopter, and for the Joint Strike Fighter program that will continue to open unexpected opportunities for new avionics business," Harman adds.
TRW will deliver more CNI avionics for the F-22 later this year.
