Military

F-35 CatBIRD Shows Avionics Capability

By Tish Drake | May 6, 2009
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Lockheed Martin said the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Cooperative Avionics Test Bed (CATBird) aircraft completed a series of avionics systems testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The two-week deployment at the base included successful airborne testing of the F-35 Lightning II radar, electronic warfare and communications/navigation/identification systems and more than 2.8 million lines of mission systems flight software. Lockheed Martin said the testing reduces hardware and software risks that cannot be retired in ground laboratories and individual sensor test beds before testing of the first mission systems equipped F-35 aircraft later this year. During the deployment, CATBird conducted 10 mission systems test flights successfully evaluating the radar, CNI, and EW infrastructure and sensor function. The avionics on the F-35 include a Northrop Grumman active electronically scanned array radar, electro-optical distributed aperture system and CNI system; a Lockheed Martin electro-optical targeting system; a BAE Systems electronic warfare system; and a VSI helmet-mounted display and a touch-screen glass cockpit display.

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