Adding Flight Termination Capability to a Missile Telemetry Section

Abstract

Past presented papers [1,2] have discussed the integration efforts of incorporating Central Test & Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP) sponsored Joint Advanced Missile Instrumentation (JAMI) components (namely the JAMI TSPI Unit-JTU), Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) parts (e.g. ARTM Tier I SO-QPSK Transmitter, Encryptor and Thermal Battery), and in-house developed devices (such as PCM Encoder and Dual Band Antenna) into a five-inch diameter Missile Telemetry (TM) Section. A prototype of this TM Section has been built up and integrated into an All Up Round (AUR) Missile and twice flown as a Captive Carried Test Missile (CTM) on an F/A-18 jet with great success. This TM Section has passed all flight qualification testing (including environmental and electro-magnetic interference-EMI tests). This paper will detail the current efforts to incorporate Flight Termination System (FTS) capabilities into this TM section. In addition, the effort to upgrade some Navy and Air Force Test Ranges (with JAMI Ground Stations and Decommutators/Demodulators) to track and gather data from this Missile containing the new TM section will be discussed.