Effector Development

Large Aircraft Survivability Systems (LASS) expands the protection of large aircraft beyond surface-to-air infrared (IR) missile threats to ensure the survivability of the High Value Airborne Assets (HVAA), air-refueling aircraft, and tactical/strategic airlifters against the increasing lethality of long-range enemy threats. LASS will develop and integrate a set of modular, platform-agnostic, scalable, on-board systems of sensors, processors, and effectors to support both on-board and off-board engagement systems. These sensors will look downward and upward to identify threats and provide aircrews a common operating picture and provide non-kinetic and kinetic engagement solutions to defeat threats to US and allied aircraft. Funding will support development and prototyping within a modular, scalable architecture, ensuring the capability can be rapidly upgraded to detect new and emerging threats. Large aircraft must have the ability to detect, decide, and defeat the enemy threats organically from onboard the aircraft. Multiple sensors will detect threats, processors will decide what threat is inbound and which aircraft is being targeted, and determine which effector is the best option to defeat the threat and provide continuous targeting data to the effector, if necessary. Effector systems may use kinetic and non-kinetic means to defeat the threat. LASS efforts include, but are not limited to, developing operational hardware and software to improve detection field of view, processing, algorithms, and dynamic tracking to ensure common interfaces for components and early countermeasure engagement. Project 650023, Effector Development, develops the LASS processor and effector. The processor and effector, along with the Long-Range Detect Sensor (LRDS) and Active Defense Sensor (ADS) developed in BA 7, PE 0401334F, LASS, Project 67A038, Advanced Sensors, provide the capability for large aircraft to organically detect, decide, and defeat the long-range threats. These will allow the large aircraft to decide how to engage and defeat the threat with a new on-board effector. The effector will allow a large aircraft to organically defeat any long-range threat utilizing on-board capabilities without external assistance. The effector will likely be a new development effort to create an item not currently in use on other Air Force systems.