Military Avionics Systems

Introduction

Evolution of Avionics

Avionics is a word coined in the late 1930s to provide a generic name for the increasingly diverse functions being provided by AVIation electrONICS. World War II and subsequent Cold War years provided the stimulus for much scientific research and technology development which, in turn, led to enormous growth in the avionic content of military aircraft. Today, avionics systems account for up to 50% of the fly-away cost of an airborne military platform and are key components of manned aircraft, unmanned aircraft, missiles and weapons. It is the military avionics of an aircraft that allow it to perform defensive, offensive and surveillance missions.

A brief chronology of military avionics development illustrates the advances that have been made from the first airborne radio experiments in 1910 and the first autopilot experiments a few years later. The 1930s saw the introduction of the first electronic aids to assure good operational reliability such as blind flying panels, radio ranging, non-directional beacons, ground-based surveillance radar, and the single-axis autopilot. The 1940s saw developments in VHF communications, identification friend or foe (IFF), gyro compass, attitude and heading reference systems, airborne intercept radar, early electronic warfare systems, military long-range precision radio navigation aids, and the two-axis autopilot. Many of these development were stimulated by events leading up to World War II and during the ...