“Helmet-Up” the Harriers, Now! – Published in USNI Proceedings, November 2009
By Colonel Jim Sandberg, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired)
By 2012—in less than three years—the Marine Corps will have completed sufficient individual and organizational training and received enough aircraft to declare an initial operating capability with their first operational squadron of F-35Bs, the unique short-takeoff/vertical landing variant of the long-awaited Joint Strike Fighter.
The first cadre of Marines to help staff the joint F-35 Lightning II training unit at Eglin Air Force Base has been selected, and most are probably already en route. The F-35 training they’ll receive has gone through careful and detailed development during the past eight years of the System Development and Demonstration program.
No doubt that training will be polished and thorough, fully sufficient to bring them to the level of proficiency required for the initial operating capability. But I wonder if that is enough.
The Harrier pilots and organizations that will soon transition to the F-35B, with its helmet-mounted display (HMD), as the primary reference for both flight and combat, will bring almost zero individual, organizational, or cultural HMD experience with them.
Why must this critical learning curve be so steep?
New Technology Is Exciting — and Challenging
The Lightning II is full of marvelous new systems that bring a new level of warfighting capability to Marine TACAIR, as well as to the tactical air forces of our Navy and Air Force, the armed services of allied nations that are partners in the program, and several other nations that have expressed interest in procuring the jets themselves. Some of these systems have never been employed before, and some are being used in ways never even contemplated before.
One of the latter is the F-35’s HMD.
HMDs have been around for decades. The Navy experimented with visual target acquisition systems in the late 1970s, and the revolutionary Apache helicopter incorporated the integrated helmet and display sighting system in the early 1980s. Technology such as this was primarily focused on targeting and weapon-aiming solutions, but it evolved over time into advanced systems that today can provide the aircrew with a host of information, depending on the task at hand.
From targeting to weapons employment, threat data, navigation displays, situational awareness cues, and in some cases even basic instrument flight information, these devices have come to such a level of sophistication that today in the F-35, the HMD is intended to be the pilot’s primary flight and combat reference. Of course, the aircraft has ancillary and backup flight reference displays on the heads-down cockpit screens, but the entire pilot-vehicle interface system is built around the concept of an HMD as the primary reference.
The idea was to develop an HMD system so capable and robust that the “tradition” of a heads-up display (HUD) on the glare shield could be abandoned. It has never been a part of the F-35 production design. Now the HUD information is right in front of the pilot’s eyes. This has never been done before in a production aircraft. Getting it right continues to be a major technical challenge.
HMDs for “Everyone”
The official HMD program of record for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine tactical air forces is the joint helmet-mounted cueing system (JHMCS), currently employed in F-16s, F-15Es, and F/A-18s at home, and in conflicts around the world. But not all Falcons, Strike Eagles, Hornets, and Super Hornets are equipped with JHMCSs. The system has only been in service for about a decade, there are significant aircraft modifications required to install it, and there are always competing requirements for the scarce budget resources that equip our warfighters.
But for those that do have JHMCS installed, generally operating in concert with the aircraft’s targeting systems (LITENING, SNIPER, ATFLIR, etc.), experienced warfighters report that the HMD brings a quantum improvement to the combat efficiency and safety of conducting combat close air support. Comments like “20 percent quicker” (shorter kill chain) or “80 percent safer” (less aircraft exposure, better target situational awareness, increased accuracy, decreased possibility of collateral damage) are not uncommon. The numbers might change, but the orders of magnitude are similar.
Even crews without JHMCS usually prefer to work with a wingman or airborne forward air controller who has one, if they can; it’s that much better. Similar advantages of having an HMD have been reported across the TACAIR mission set, from air-to-air combat to road reconnaissance and almost everything in between. Some pilots have even considered checking their JHMCS symbology during approach and landing in the event of a HUD failure.
But some of these F-16s, -15s, -18s, and other aircraft may never have JHMCS installed. Some are too far down the budget line, some are facing “sundown” plans, and some have older ejection-seat systems with which JHMCS is incompatible for safe ejections throughout the aircraft’s envelope. The Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier II seems to have fit all three of these categories in the past, but the gears of the budget and acquisition processes are finally beginning to turn.
Today, Marines in Harriers are engaging enemies in combat every day using many of the same weapons and targeting pods as their Marine Hornet counterparts, with many of the same tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) but without any HMDs and the attendant improvements in combat effectiveness, safety, and tactical relevance. Even many of those older F/A-18 Hornets in the Corps do not yet have HMDs. How many more years of combat will they have to sustain without the capability to send our very best?
Time Needed to Improve Capabilities
Last year, a Harrier squadron flying combat missions submitted a Deliberate Universal Need Statement. The Marine Corps Combat Development Command validated it. In response, the Harrier program office in NAVAIR (PMA-257), working with the Aircrew Systems Office (PMA-202) and their resource sponsors in OPNAV and HQMC, have been pursuing a priority Capability Improvement Issue to provide fiscal year 2012 funding for development or procurement of a suitable HMD for their Harriers. Today, they plan to begin flight-testing in fiscal year 2015 and have the technology in the field by fiscal year 2016.
But I wonder if that is enough.
Whether on the land, in air, or sea, significant advances in warfighting capabilities, usually through some new equipment or weapons, require time and experience. Individuals, organizations, and cultures must learn how best to use these new capabilities, and develop the necessary TTPs. With all due respect to developers and trainers (I have been both), we can barely begin to imagine the TTPs that will evolve from actual use of these improved capabilities.
As a newly minted major, I was part of the Corps’ transition to F-18s in the early 1980s.
I remember the magic that many of us attributed to the HUD. In addition to being a wizard gunsight, it was also the Hornet’s primary flight instrument. This was nothing like the depressed reticules or the AJB-3 attitude indicators with which we had all grown up in our Phantoms and Skyhawks. This was entirely different. It was a quantum leap in capability.
But no matter how many classroom lectures, simulator rides, or exams we had, it still took time and experience for each individual, organization, and culture to develop what in many instances were significantly different TTPs to safely and effectively execute our missions. It wasn’t easy, and it was not free.
Three years later, when the (HUD-equipped) Navy A-7 Corsair II squadrons began transitioning into the Hornet, I imagine pilots said things like, “Hey, neat HUD. I wonder if I can do [fill in the blank] with it?” They didn’t have to learn from scratch what a HUD was or how to use it. They already had the individual, organizational, and cultural experience with another HUD that allowed them to take full advantage of this new technology quicker, more efficiently, and perhaps even more safely.
Accelerating and Unifying Operations
With the introduction of the F-35B, the Corps continues to merge its TACAIR capabilities and cultures from the Harrier, Prowler, and Hornet communities into a more cohesive supporting force for Marines and joint and coalition forces. AV-8B pilots and their Harrier squadrons, with their short-takeoff/vertical landing expertise and VMA culture and TTPs, will be joined by EA-6B and F/A-18 pilots and their own VMAQ and VMFA experiences.
I wonder if the Harrier and Prowler warfighters will marvel at the magic of the Lightening II’s HMD as their primary flight and combat display. I wonder if the HMD-experienced Hornet drivers will say something like, “Hey, neat helmet! I wonder if I can do [fill in the blank] with it.”
Colonel Art Tomassetti, USMC, Vice Commander of the 33rd FW, Eglin Air Force Base, sums up the situation:
All F-35 students walk to the airplane for the first time by themselves, without an instructor in their plane. We should strive to reduce the number of times that a pilot says ‘this is the first time I’ve done this or used this’ with actual flight hardware to the max extent possible. Side stick, HMD, touchscreens, Distributed Aperture System, voice activation, Fly-By-Wire, and so on, some of these we can do well in the simulators and some we can’t. The only other thing these pilots bring is their aviation experience. If that experience includes some of these F-35 capabilities, great. If not, well . . .
Colonel Sandberg flew A-4 Skyhawks in the early 1970s. Graduating from USAFTPS in 1977, he served as operational test pilot in VX-4, Point Mugu, California, flying the A-4, F-4, F-14, and new F-18. He was the 31st pilot to ever fly a Hornet. After leaving active duty in 1982, he worked for Northrop as an engineering test pilot and finally as Director of the F-35 Integrated Test Team at Pax River. A former president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, he now works as an independent consultant. One of his clients is GENTEX Corporation, an HMD developer.
Republished with the permission of USNI
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