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Advanced Cruise Missile Mission Control Aircraft
The CMMCA, Advanced Cruise Missile Mission Control Aircraft, were
designed to reduce the number of aircraft required to support the Cruise
Missile flight testing program. This reduction of support aircraft would
provide substantial savings.
There were two aircraft modified for CMMCA, aircraft 81-0893 and
81-0895. The mission equipment was eventually removed and the aircraft
were transferred into the Joint STARS program.
The Cruise Missile flight testing program was also supported by 61-0326,
61-0329, and 60-374 with CMMCA Phase 0 modifications. The equipment was
eventually removed from 61-0326 and 61-0329 and reinstalled in 81-0891
and 81-0894. The equipment still remains in aircraft 60-374 which was
retired to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Museum in 2000.
In the late 1990's, after the CMMCA aircraft were transferred to Joint
STARS, the Phase 0 CMMCA configuration was used extensively in support
of the Cruise Missile program. The standard ARIA telemetry equipment
performed it's receive, record, and retransmit mission while the DSC,
Data Separation Console, separated the mission data where it was
displayed at the CMMCA console. The aircraft also provided UHF voice
relay between Mission Control and the fighter aircrafts performing
safety chase.
The CMMCA console consisted of three positions that were usually manned
by United States Air Force or Navy personnel. The operators monitored
the Cruise Missile's health and if necessary could take over control of
the missile with the ability to terminate the test.
There were numerous differences between the Advanced CMMCA and the ARIA
aircraft. The most obvious is the smaller three foot dish. The benefit
of this configuration was that it allowed the aircraft to overtake the
missile without reaching the maximum dish angle of the antenna. The
larger seven foot dish arrangement was more restrictive.
The other large antenna in the Advanced CMMCA is part of the APG-63
radar, the same radar that is installed in an F-15 fighter aircraft.
This radar was intended to allow positive tracking of the Cruise Missile
and reduce the need for fighter safety chase planes. The APG-63 radar
was never fully utilized.
Randy Losey
Source:
Chris Miller |
