Mercury Systems, Inc. a leader in trusted, secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, announced that its new mPOD, a rapidly reprogrammable electronic attack (EA) training system designed to train pilots using realistic, near-peer jamming capabilities, has successfully completed initial flight testing and is available for order. Tactical Air Support, a leader in commercial air services, tactical aviation training, and technical advisory services for U.S. military and international partners, oversaw three days of flight testing that ran beyond visual range tactical intercept training engagements replicating adversary tactics. F-5 aircraft equipped with Mercury’s mPOD EA training system successfully broke, delayed, and denied opposing fighter radar locks, created multiple false targets on the opposing fighter radar, and performed other electronic attack techniques. To sharpen their combat skills, pilots need to train in mock air-to-air combat with other pilots operating as adversaries. Using mPOD, “adversary” pilots can emulate enemy jamming techniques accurately, conditioning aircrews to evolving threat scenarios and better preparing them for real combat.
“We are excited to begin offering our mPOD training system to organizations around the world,” said Mark Bruington, vice president, Mercury Mission Systems. “mPOD is an innovative solution that can be programmed quickly and will help U.S. and allied military pilots develop tactics to maintain a strategic advantage over adversaries. It will also increase pilot and aircraft survivability and reduce training costs through integrated threat presentations.”
“Our aircrew need to train against realistic, threat representative systems,” said RC Thompson, CEO of Tactical Air. “Our close working relationship with Mercury has resulted in a state of the art, internally configured EA capability fully integrated with our open architecture sensor suite. The result is threat realism with no performance penalty on our aircraft. It has been a pleasure to work with such an innovative and dynamic company.”
mPOD is built with proven technology for electronic warfare training, test, and evaluation:
Simultaneously emulate multiple National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC)-validated threats with proven Filthy Buzzard digital RF memory (DRFM) technology developed and validated over 35 years in partnership with the U.S. Air Force and Navy
Quickly reprogram missions and threats for different aircraft and radar systems in minutes via an intuitive software interface
Speed integration with the aircraft display and control panel using the user interface or an integrated cockpit control panel
Attach the mPOD to any aircraft weapon’s pylon or integrate it within the aircraft to reduce drag and maintain aircraft performance
Decrease overall sustainment cost through a scalable and modular design with six swappable, high MTBF hardware components including a wideband Meggitt antenna
Tactical Air Support Inc. is a leader in commercial air services, tactical aviation training, and technical advisory services for the US Military and our International partners. Since its inception in 2005, Tactical Air has continuously applied innovative business practices to provide the government and aviation industry with unparalleled, yet affordable commercial air support and tactical consulting. The Tactical Air team brings the industry’s finest cadre of proven leaders and aviators paired with one of the world’s largest fleets of sustainable, safe, and highly upgraded fighter/attack aircraft. Our diverse staff consists of former TOPGUN/Weapons School Instructors and Graduates, Operational Aviators, Test Pilots, Astronauts, Air Battle Managers, and Aviation Maintenance professionals. Headquartered in Lexington Park, Maryland, Tactical Air has its main base of operations in Reno/Stead, Nevada.
Mercury Systems is a technology company that delivers commercial innovation to rapidly transform the global aerospace and defense industry. From data to decision, silicon to systems, A&D leaders turn to the products, services, technologies and people that comprise the secure, end-to-end Mercury processing platform—the exponential power that connects customers to what matters most
