How the US Air Force Plans to Avert Deadly Supersonic Mid-Air Crashes

Kris Osborn

Security,

Emerging Air Force computer technology can thwart a supersonic mid-air collision by automatically changing the flight path of two fighters headed for a deadly crash.

Envision a scenario where two or more supersonic fighter jets are conducting combat maneuvers in such close proximity that they come less than 500-feet away from one another -- when an automatic computer system engineered into the aircraft takes over and re-directs the fighters, saving lives and averting a catastrophic collision.

This is precisely the scenario scientists at the Air Force Research Lab are hoping to make possible by the early 2020s through an ongoing effort to deploy an emerging technology called Air Automatic Collision Avoidance System, or ACAS. 

Algorithms are being specifically developed to automatically give computers flight control of an F-16, once it flies to within 500-feet or less than another aircraft, senior Air Force officials said. The computer systems are integrated with data links, sensors and other communications technologies to divert soon-to-crash aircraft. 

“We transfer data at 20herz to coordinate with other aircraft in the area and agree to cooperative recovery maneuvers if they are necessary,” Army Burns, Automatic Collisions Avoidance Technology Program, Air Force Research Laboratory, told Scout Warrior in an interview.

Burns explained that their have been several successful tests of the ACAT technology at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., using F-16s. 

"What we do is use a cooperative data link. We can use GPS and INS (inertial navigation systems) sent over a track file to other aircraft in the area. If a collision is going to occur, they agree on a cooperative maneuver," Burns said. 

So far, the Air Force has conducted 19 "two-ship" flights and one "three ship" flights using the system to prevent collisions. 

"We might even do a 4-ship test as we continue to update the algorithms and make improvements," Burns explained. 

(This first appeared in Scout Warrior here.)

The system is also engineered to identify and divert aircraft that are "non-cooperative," meaning not from the US Air Force, she added; sensors are designed to work quickly to detect a flight path or approaching trajectory with the hope of thwarting a possible collision. 

 “We also look for non-cooperative targets via radar lock to figure out a track,” Burns said.