SPECIFICATION OF THE INVENTION

1. Title of the invention

A novel system and method of weapon configuration validation for fighter aircraft

2. Field of Invention

This invention relates to performing effective weapon aiming from a fighter aircraft, in particular to a system and method to validate the weapon configuration of the Weapon Control System (WCS).

3. Use of invention

The use of the invention is to provide indication to pilot of the valid/invalid configuration of weapon to maintain the stability of aircraft where the weapon control system is not on any digital bus.

4. Prior art and Draw backs of prior art

The WCS provides the weapon type loaded in pylons to the Weapon AimingComputer, which in turn computes the impact point of selected weapon for performing weapon aiming mission from a fighter aircraft. In the conventional system, the ground-crew sets the type of weapon in the Armament Main Unit (AMU) and also sets the weapon in Weapon List Switch (WLS) which is situated near AMU outside the cockpit. Thevalid configuration information is not available to weapon aiming computer to verify whether the weapon configuration set by the ground-crew is correct. The impact point computation will be incorrect if the loaded weapon and the AMU settings are different. Hence validation of the weapon configuration loaded on the aircraft on all the pylons with respect to the settings of the AMU is not possible by the conventional method.
This invention provides a system and method to validate the weapon configuration loaded on to the aircraft. Also this method provides flexibility to the pilot to select the weapon and validate its configuration dynamically from the cockpit. This method is applicable to a WCS system where the communication with Weapon Aiming Computer is not digital (like a standard bus MN-1553B).

5. Aim of the Invention

The main objective of this invention is to provide a system and method to validate the weapon configuration selected for the weapon aiming mission from fighter aircraft. Further objective of the invention is to provide a method to validate the WCSsettings i.e. the pylon selection status from Weapon Control Panel (WCP) and the Major weapon selection status from AMU w.r.t. the weapon selected for weapon aiming from Up Front Control Panel (UFCP). Other objective is to provide method to validate the weapon selected against the weapon configuration allowed on the aircraft. Yet further aspect of the invention is to provide the mechanism to validate only the weapon configuration when no pylons and major weapon lines are selected, to provide flexibility to the pilot to select different weapon configuration from UFCP.

6. Summary of the present invention

This invention presents a system and method for validation of weapon configuration along with the AMU selection. It defines the system and method to facilitate on-ground and in-flight validation of weapon configuration for the required weapon aiming mission.The invention decodes the major weapon type received from AMU and the pylon selection status received from WCP. The method performs the validation of the AMU settings and then based on the AMU validation status carries out the weapon configuration validation using the allowable weapon configuration and pylon weapon list storage data. The invention also provides the flexibility to validate the weapon configuration with/without AMU validation, so that the pilot can easily select the weapon configuration. The system consists of Weapon Configuration Storage Module 110, Pylon Weapon List Storage Module 120, Major Weapon Decoder Module 130, Configuration Validation Module 140, AMU Validation Module 150, Symmetric/Asymmetric Checker Module 160 and Search & Match Module 770 to perform weapon configuration validation. The validation results are displayed on the Head-Up Display (HUD) and Head-Down Display (HDD) as a cue to the pilot.

7. Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the Weapon Aiming Computer for validating the weapon configuration permitted on the aircraft.

Figure 2 is a flow chart of the steps illustrating the method of validating the AMU settings.

Figure 3 is a flow chart of the steps illustrating the method of validating the weapon configuration and display of the weapon configuration validation status on the cockpit displays.

8. Detailed Description of the Invention

In the present invention, the weapon configuration is validated bya 2 layer concept where first layer validates the AMU selections and the second layer validates the weapon configuration selectedbefore computing the impact point of the weapon by the Weapon Aiming Computer 700.This invention aids the pilot to achieve the validation of weapon configuration from the cockpit without the intervention of the ground-crew. Weapon configuration validation is achieved by Weapon Configuration Storage Module770, Pylon Weapon List Storage Module 720, Major Weapon Decoder Module 130, Configuration Validation Module740, AMU Validation Module 150, Symmetric/Asymmetric Checker Module 160 and Search & Match Module 170. Refer Figure 1. The module 130 receives the 10 major discrete weapon types from AMU and decodes the weapon type. Module 150 performs the AMU validation by receiving the 5 pylon selection status from WCP, 10 major weapon types from module 130, pilot selected weapon list from UFCP and sets the AMU Validation status accordingly. Module 140 performs the weapon configuration validation after AMU validation through the modules 160, 170 using the weapon configuration and pylon weapon list stored data from modules 770 and 720 respectively. The validated weapon list and the validation status are displayed on the cockpit display systems like UFCP of HUD and Smart Multifunction Display (SMD).

The Figure 2 shows the flow diagram illustrating the operation of the Weapon Aiming Computer 700 (Refer Figure 1) for AMU validation. It also provides the flexibility to the pilot to select the weapon configuration when all the pylons and weapon lines are not selected. In step 202, the Major Weapon Decode Module 730 receives the ten Major weapon types from the AMU and also decodes the type of weapon to provide to AMU Validation Module 750. The Module 750 reads the 5 pylon (i.e. Right outer, Right Inner, Center, Left Inner and Left Outer) selection statusand also receives the pilot entered weapon through UFCP as in step 203-204. The check is performed by Module 750, to ensure that no pylon is selected in WCP and no major weapon type is set in AMU in step 205. If no pylon and no weapon are selected as in the step 206, the AMU validation is not carried out but the AMU Validation Status is set for carrying out weapon configuration list validation. But if any of the pylon or major weapon type is selected then the AMU validation is performed. Refer steps 207-215. In step 207, each pylon selected from WCP against the pylon selection for weapon entry through UFCP is checked and if false, Weapon Selected for particular pylon is set to NO_WEAPON (step 208-209). If true, the Module 750, matches the selected major weapon type from AMU with the UFCP selected weapon from the weapon list received from UFCP (step 270-277). The Module 150, sets the AMU Validation Status if the AMU Major Weapon Type and weapon selected from UFCP is of the same type else resets the AMU Validation Status. (Refer steps 212-214)

The Figure 3 shows the flow diagram illustrating the operation of the Weapon Aiming Computer 100 (Refer Figure 1) for weapon configuration validation.In step 301, the Configuration Validation Module 140 receives the AMU Validation Status from the module 150. Its status is checked as in step 303 and if its status is false, then the Weapon Configuration Validation Status is reset in step 320 else weapon configuration validation is performed. Refer steps 305-322. In step 304-305, module 140 receives the pilot selected weapon configuration list from UFCP for all the pylons. It checks whether the weapon received in each pylon is present in the pylon weapon list stored in Pylon Weapon List Storage Module 720. If present, the weapon configuration list is prepared comprising of the weapons of all the 5 pylons. Further the Symmetric/Asymmetric Checker Module 760 receives the weapon configuration list prepared by module 740 and checks if outer and inner pylons carry the same weapons to maintain symmetry of the weapons loaded on aircraft in steps 306-307. If outer and inner weapon are not same then the module 760 resets the Valid Status, else checks the center pylon weapon. If the center pylon is drop tank then resets the Valid Status else sets the Valid Status. Refer steps 308-312. The Search & Match module 770, receives the weapon configuration list from module 740. The list is searched with the allowed weapon configuration list containing the weapon combination of the 5 pylon stored in Weapon Configuration Storage Module 770. If a match is found the set the Match Status else reset the Match Status. Refer steps 373-377. In step 378, the Valid Status and Match Status are received from modules 760 and 770 by module 740. If both the status is valid then the Weapon Configuration Validation Status is set else it is reset. Refer step 319-321. The Weapon Configuration Validation Status and Weapon list is displayed on UFCP and SMD for indication to the pilot. If the Weapon Configuration Validation Status is invalid, then CLR is flashed on UFCP providing the indication to the pilot that the weapon configuration is invalid else the validated weapon configuration list is displayed, indicating a valid configuration. After the validation of the weapon configuration the weapon aiming is carried out by the pilot by selecting the required pylon on WCP.

CLAIMS

We claim

1. A novel system and method for real time validation of the weapon configuration by weapon aiming computer for the weapon control system of fighter aircraft. The system and method is characterized by Weapon Configuration Storage module, Pylon Weapon List Storage module, Major Weapon Decoder module, AMU Validation module, Symmetric/Asymmetric Checker module, Search & Match module and Configuration Validation module.
2. Weapon Configuration Storage module, as claimed in Claim 1, stores the weapon configuration of all pylons which is allowed to be loaded on the fighter aircraft.

3. Pylon Weapon List Storage module, as claimed in Claim 1, stores the list of the weapon allowed to be loaded in each pylon.

4. Major Weapon Decoder module, as claimed in Claim 1, decodes the major weapon type set/selected in the Armament Main Unit.

5. AMU Validation module, as claimed in Claim 1, validates major weapon type set in Armament Main Unit along the pylon selection of Weapon Control Panel with the weapon selected by the pilot for weapon aiming.

6. Symmetric/Asymmetric Checker module, as claimed in Claim 1, checks for the symmetry of the weapons selected in outer, inner and center pylon.

7. Search & Match module, as claimed in Claim 1, searches the selected weapon configuration in the weapon configuration stored data and provides a match if found.

8. Configuration Validation module, as claimed in Claim 1, validates weapon configuration selected by the pilot in all pylons as a combination and provides the weapon configuration validation status for display.