Lead electrical engineer Michael Matosky and TSgt. William Gray Jr., technical liaison from the Benefield Anechoic Facility, perform routine tests on the special pod modified to support and carry a surface-to-air missile seeker under an F-16 aircraft. (Air Force photo by Bill McQuillan)

Pod Mounted Seeker Program

Modified F-16 pod enhances missile simulations

by Bill McQuillan
AFFTC Public Affairs

        light testing is currently underway h      here of a specially designed “pod”
      that when mounted under and flown with an F-16 aircraft, will physically simulate the flight of a surface-to-air missile, or SAM.
     The pod is a metal cylinder about 13 feet long, two feet in diameter, which contains the actual “seeker” portion of a SAM. The seeker guides a SAM toward its target by homing in on radar signals reflected off the target by a ground radar transmitter.
     One reason for simulating a SAM is to help determine the effectiveness of electronic countermeasures, or ECM, according to Terry Pierce, modification program manager for the Pod Mounted Seeker Program.
     “When people design new ECM, they want to know if that counter-measure can beat a certain missile,” Pierce said.
     In this case, the F-16 carrying a pod-mounted seeker will physically fly the projected path of a SAM in order to “target” an aircraft equipped with a new ECM. Data gathered along the flight path will allow testers to determine the effect of the ECM on the seeker.
     “The seeker will start processing data to maintain a lock on its target,” Pierce said. “We record that data, focusing on whether ECM signals are preventing the seeker from maintaining that lock.”
     The pod can be equipped with either an actual seeker or hardware that emulates a SAM seeker of a potential enemy, according to Pierce.
     “Most people aren’t really interested in how they’ll do against their own missiles since they won’t be targeted by them,” he said. “They want to see how they’ll do against a threat SAM. That’s when seeker emulators can be used in a pod.”
     Another use for data gathered with a seeker pod is to improve ground-based simulations of combat scenarios involving SAMs.
     “To create realistic simulations, engineers need hard data,” Pierce said. ‘They’ll take the real data that a seeker pod generates and compare it to simulated data with the goal of improving their simulations.”
     The 413”’ Flight Test Squadron is managing the overall test program. When the capability becomes operationally available to customers, it will reside in the Electronic Warfare Test Directorate.

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     Several members of the 412”' Test Wing’s Instrumentation Division completely rebuilt the pod after receiving it last year from Eglin AFB, Fla. In addition to the seeker, complex hydraulic and electronic systems were added to support the seeker and record and transfer data.
     They also built an automated ground-based test suite from off-the-shelf commercial electronic equipment that testers will use to perform pre-flight tests on the pod. This mobile equipment will also record preflight, flight and post-flight test analysis data on a CD for the customer.
     “A lot of work went into the RF test suite and the pod,” Pierce said. “The data gathered will make all the hard work worthwhile.”