ORLANDO — Lockheed Martin has unveiled a new pod it claims will bring long-range infrared search and track (IRST) capabilities to fourth-generation aircraft.
The Legion pod, shown for the first time at the Air Force Association's annual Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, is being billed as a flexible, affordable solution to give networked IRST capabilities to the US Air Force's F-15 and F-16 fighters.
Don Bolling, director of business development at Lockheed's Missiles and Fire Control business unit, called the design of the pod "purposeful," with a focus on making sure the system is cost affordable, has room to grow with future requirements and does not come with burdensome energy requirements that could hamper the jet's negatively impact capabilities of the jet. The system is also designed to allow situational awareness data sharing between pods.
Digital Show Daily: Complete coverage of AFA's Air Warfare Symposium
The design is 16 inches in diameter and weighs about 500 pounds, largely in line with Lockheed's Sniper targeting pod. The front end is equipped with the IRST21 infrared sensor/receiver, a passive, long-range sensor system used to track and detect airborne threats.
The IRST21 system was approved for low-rate initial production on the Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornet in January. The fact the component is already in use by the Navy will help keep costs down, Bolling said. He emphasized the design of the pod focuses heavily on affordability.
Bolling added that the pod is not designed to simply stay as is, but rather be as flexible as possible. That includes basing the system on an open architecture model.
"We've looked at a number of different radar, RF sensor payload options," he said. "We wouldn't be good stewards of this project if we didn't look at that and a number of hosted payloads that could be accommodated in there, whether they are comms payload or RF payloads, to provide the most mission bang for the buck."
Work on the pod began about three years ago, Bolling said, but escalated once the Air Force issues a request for information for an external IRST capability that can be mounted on an F-15C. He expects a request for proposal for that capability to be issued this year, with a downselect in 2016 ahead of a 2018 delivery date.
The pod has gone through a mechanical fit-check on the center line of the F-15C, and Lockheed is working with the Air Force to clear the jet to fly in that configuration. Once all the qualifications are complete, the pod will be flown first on an F-16 and then quickly after on an F-15. Those first flights could come as soon as March or April, but that timeframe is dependent on when the service gives the all-clear.
A close-up of the Lockheed Martin Legion pod, equipped with an ISRT21 sensor.
Photo Credit: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed is also eyeing the B-1 and B-52 bomber fleets as possibilities for the pod in the future, although equipping Legion on those planes is more of a long-term concept than an ongoing project at the moment.
Another potential competition for the pod is the Air Force's Multi-domain Adaptable Processing System (MAPS) program, which aims to develop better information sharing between fourth-to-fifth generation aircraft. The service has identified data linkage between older aircraft, such as the F-15, and new aircraft like the F-22 or F-35 joint strike fighter, as a key problem to tackle.
Bolling believes the pod-to-pod communication built into Legion makes it an attractive solution on how to share that data. Although he did not make the point directly, the fact that Lockheed has developed the F-35 and much of the software on that plane would give it a potential leg up on competition when it comes to communicating between the older jets and the newer fighter.
"Because [the Air Force] was not able to buy the number of F-22s they would have liked to have had, there is an increasing realization that they need to keep the 4th gen aircraft around much longer," Bolling said. "We think it's innovative, networking information among other pods."
Email: amehta@defensenews.com
Twitter: @AaronMehta
Aaron Mehta was deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Defense Department and its international partners.
