Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Training System Division in Orlando, Fla., announced an $8.8 million order to L-3 Vertex on Monday to buy and install 96 automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) avionics kits for Navy TH-57 helicopters.
The TH-57 is a Navy version of the commercial Bell Jet Ranger 206. Although primarily used for training, these aircraft also are for photo, chase, and utility missions. The helicopter provides advanced instrument training to several hundred aviation students a year at Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Fla.
The ADS-B relies on aircraft avionics, a constellation of GPS satellites, and a network of ground stations across the country to transmit an aircraft's position, ground speed, and other data to air traffic controllers, and can be used in areas like the Gulf of Mexico where radar coverage is not possible. It transmits surveillance information about an aircraft in flight or while on the ground.
Related: ADS-B In brings air traffic control elements to the cockpit
This order consists of 48 ADS-B A kits and 48 B kits necessary to upgrade the transceiver and transponders; navigation aid system wiring, radio/ADS-broadcast avionics; and global positioning systems in the TH-57 aircraft, Navy officials say.
The order is a modification to a contract awarded originally to L-3 Vertex in 2014 to provide logistics services for 96 Navy TH-57 helicopters.
On this order L-3 Vertex will do the work at Whiting Field Naval Air Station near Pensacola, Fla., and in Melbourne, Fla., and should be finished by May 2018.
For more information contact L-3 Vertex Aerospace online at www.l3t.com/business-segments/aerospace-systems, or the Naval Air Warfare Center Training System Division-Orlando at www.navair.navy.mil/nawctsd.
Learn more: search the Aerospace & Defense Buyer's Guide for companies, new products, press releases, and videos
