Bird Aerosystems has reported a live firing demonstration of the SPREOS DIRCM protection system against several Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS). All of the missiles were subsequently defeated.
As part of the demonstration that was conducted according to a specific customer request, the company set up a test range that included a C2 room, a shooting post and a simulated aircraft equipped with Bird’s AMPS-MD system, including the SPREOS DIRCM. During the demonstration, MANPADS of different types were shot at the simulated aircraft. The AMPS detection sensors identified the missiles and alerted the MCDU mission computer, which activated the SPREOS DIRCM. SPREOS then rotated towards the threat and conducted threat confirmation and tracking followed by the deployment of the dual-band countermeasure laser. This caused all of the missiles to miss the simulated aircraft.
Targeting the challenging scenarios of short-range surface-to-air threats, Bird’s SPREOS DIRCM was activated upon a pre-alarm signal, which caused the SPREOS to rotate toward the threat and activate its semi-active Doppler radar to interrogate and confirm the incoming threat, ensuring a zero false alarm rate.
Concurrently, the Doppler radar also provided information on the incoming threat such as its Radar Cross Section, distance and velocity, which enabled a real-time assessment of the threat’s nature and automatic calculation of the “Time-to-Impact”. This is a vital indication that was used by the AMPS system to ensure optimal protection tailoured to defeat each specific threat that the aircraft was exposed to.
JH
