Future EA-18G undergoes store separation testing at AEDC

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
ARNOLD AFB, TENN --  Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) has conducted 64.5 air-on hours of store separation testing to support development of the U.S. Navy's next generation electronic warfare aircraft, the EA-18G.
The EA-18G, an electronic attack version of the F/A-18E/F aircraft, is the planned replacement for the Navy EA-6B Prowler, in service since 1971. It served as the original platform for the AN/ALQ-99 tactical jamming system (TJS) pod. The store separation testing also served to provide benchmark data on the aerodynamic performance of the EA-18G.
According to David Hughes, Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) project manager for the testing, the recent store separation test was a first and it will help to lay the groundwork for future related testing. The test served to define the aerodynamic behavior of the AN/ALQ-99 TJS pods on the wings of the aircraft as well as the flight envelope from which the store can be safely jettisoned from the plane.
"It has never been defined before," he explained. "We don't have any free-stream data, until this test, on how the AN/ALQ-99s would react to air."
Hughes explained how AEDC laid the foundation for the future testing of the EA-18 saying, "We have a 10- percent scale model of an F/A-18E/F we've tested many times in 16T over the past 10 years. We did draw from some experience from that testing, but as far as configuring the aircraft for the EA-18G, this is the first time we've ever done that. The EA-18G is still under development. We are part of that development process."
The purpose of this test program was to obtain the separation characteristics of AN/ALQ-99 TJS pods, an external fuel tank, an AGM-88 HARM air-to-ground missile (launch mode), an AGM-88/LAU-118 (jettison mode) and an AIM-120C air-to-air missile in the launch mode.
Testing was conducted within a range of 0.6 to 1.20 Mach, depending on the type of store being released. Testing served to support flight testing and storage carriage and release certification.
Regarding any possible upcoming EA-18G store separation testing at AEDC, Hughes said, "We can't predict the future, but I would say there will be some follow-on tests from this. These customers - Boeing - they've come to us many times. They're one of our best customers. Whenever we test this F/A-18 aircraft model, they usually come to AEDC. They like our quality, they like the size of our tunnel and we try to do a good job for them. We value them as a customer."
In reference to the recent store separation testing, Joseph Corce, senior manager of flight laboratory operations for aircraft and missile systems for Boeing, said, "I was really pleasantly surprised - I was a little nervous in the beginning because of a few things. It was the first CTS (Captive Trajectory Support system) test that had been in 16T since the modernization of the control room and all the control systems, data acquisition systems and all that kind of thing. The control room had been operated and used for other tests before we got there. The (control room's) basic systems had been checked out, but it was the first time the CTS system had been used."
The CTS is a computer-controlled, six-degree-of-freedom model positioning system. The six degrees of freedom are pitch, yaw, roll, vertical, axial and horizontal motions.
"Also, it was the first time the sustainment system had been applied to the CTS cart we were installed in," he continued. "And, the CTS system, all the hardware had been removed from the CTS cart - so they had to put everything back together again. So, the combination of these three things made me a little apprehensive. But everything worked and went very well."