Military Avionics Systems

1Military Roles

1.1 Introduction

The military were quick to seize upon the opportunities offered to them by an ability to leave the ground and gain an advantage of height. The initial attempts to make use of this advantage were by using tethered balloons as observation posts, and then as positions from which to direct artillery. The advent of a moving and powered platform allowed guns and, later, bombs to be carried, which led to air war between aircraft, and upon ground troops. Thus, fairly early in the history of the aircraft the main military roles of observation, interception and ground attack had been firmly established. These initial roles increased in sophistication and led to the development of more capable aircraft weapons, aircrew and tactics.

Today the military are called upon to perform a wide variety of aviation roles using fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. The roles largely define the type of aircraft because of the specialist nature of the task; however, there are a number of aircraft types that have been designed as multirole aircraft, or designed to change roles during the prosecution of a mission, the so-called swing-role type.

The military roles that are in place today have emerged over many years of aerial combat experience. The long development timescales of the complex military aircraft have resulted in many types remaining in service long after their original introduction. Consequently, aircraft have adopted new roles as a result of role-fit weapons ...