Q&A With Chris Polynin, Director of Business Development at L3Harris Commercial Aviation

What are some of the key advantages of the avionics products manufactured by L3Harris?

The L3Harris TCAS/ADS-B, flight data recorders, standby displays, navigation and display solutions are leading commercial off-the-shelf products that are adapted for use by military pilots to meet their mission obligations safely and in a cost-effective manner today, and well into the future.

Voice and flight data recorders enable aircraft to capture the most information available for FDM [Flight Data Monitoring]/FOQA [Flight Operations Quality Assurance] purchases to increase pilot procedures and provide evidence-based learning for enhanced safety.

The Tactical Airborne Navigation System (TACAN+) provides efficiency, reduces costs, and offers flexibility to pilots on various helicopter and military aircraft platforms. It provides optimized Air-to-Air ranging performance for multi-aircraft scenarios with a software-controlled dual antenna switching and configuration and enables interface flexibility with A429 input and output ports for communication.

It is the only TACAN able to run four TACAN/DME ground stations simultaneously, and two in bearing, with a tracking velocity at 1800 knots. One of the system’s most noted features is the high power packed into the world’s lightest and smallest TACAN ever produced, weighing only 5.2 pounds with a 750-watt transceiver for easy maintenance.

What do you consider to be the most important aspects of developing and manufacturing avionics for military applications? Are there any challenges or unique requirements?

One of the prevalent aspects to development is interoperability with other systems, in addition to ease of installation and the ability for operators and service centers to quickly update feature sets using software updates. These aspects reduce maintenance time, costs, and AOGs that could distribute critical mission schedules.

Environmental Qualification requirements are also a consideration. These are often more stringent and unique to the military market.

Additionally, newer platforms must be FACE [Future Airborne Capability Environment]/MOSA compliant. The FACE/MOSA open architecture is a driver for military avionics and will continue to be part of current and future development activities for avionics.

Could you comment on the recent announcement from L3Harris about the off-the-shelf cohesive flight data recorder system for light aircraft and helicopters?

Even though recorders are the single most useful tool and necessary for accident investigations to determine the causes of accidents, they are not required on all aircraft. ICAO’s recommendation on corrective action helicopters and light aircraft was put into effect this year with EASA’s ED-155 mandate. Canada has a proposed mandate for all classes of light helicopters and rotorcraft, and light aircraft and helicopter recorders have been part of the NTSB “most wanted” list for many years. Other global entities are recommending mandates similar to EASA’s.

Engineers confirmed that the L3Harris integrated solution exceeds all mandates and ICAO recommendations. It provides an off-the-shelf solution, available now using proven, field-tested products. It is available for multiple platforms and uses the existing aircraft wiring. This significantly reduces the need to integrate existing or new avionics and connect them to an ED-155 recorder.

The value of placing recorders on aircraft extends well beyond accident investigation. Recorders can be used to retrieve data for flight data management, quality assurance, safety risks, and to identify engine/component failures. This data can be used to enhance safety, ensure operating standards, and institute evidence-based pilot training. All of these operational values can be implemented in real time today and quickly integrated during normal operation.

From a sustainability perspective, L3Harris provides the lightest ED-155 compliant recorder on market weighing just under 1.1K with the mounting hardware included.

Could you comment on the Link 16 acquisition that was announced in early January?

Link-16 is the standard for tactical datalinks today. If you need to interoperate with the United States, you need Link-16 on your platforms. With this acquisition, we will provide customers the venerable Link-16 capability and interoperability with legacy modes with enhancements to capability to make platforms more survivable in contested environments while sending mission-critical information to the joint force. We are now one of two main Link-16 primes with a unique capability for customers to modernize and improve their force posture.

While industry and customers have been focused on counter-insurgency since the beginning of the century, it is time now to focus on the high-end peer fight, and we are well positioned to support our customers with the advanced tactical datalink capabilities they need to succeed in conflicts in the future.

Do you foresee or expect any major advancements in military avionics over the next few years?

The L3Harris multifunction displays provide enhanced safety and reduced installation costs. These advanced features provide greater pilot situational awareness, which is especially needed as UAS and future advanced air mobility aircraft enter the market. From a service perspective, these displays can be installed as line-fit or retrofit and updated through software upgrades, reducing maintenance time and costs. Key features of these display include:

• A single device serving as a Primary Flight, Standby, Navigation and Auxiliary display in a single device.
• Features and size provide OEMs and operators design flexibility and minimizes cockpit space using a condensed digital design.
• Provides pilots an easy-to-use edge-to-edge glass LED-backlit LCD touchscreen for clear visibility and enhanced situational awareness.
• Enables enhance situational awareness and pilot efficiency for selectable flight guidance information provided by easy access to menu settings, source and mode selection.
• Selectable menu options include, but are not limited to Horizontal Situation Indicator, Attitude Directional Indicator, Synthetic Vision, ADS-B Traffic, Aircraft System Monitor Pages, Communication and Navigation and Customer Defined Pages.
• The design leverages proven in-operations designs such as the GH-4001 and GH-3900 used by global military and their feedback to provide solutions for their critical needs.

Regarding detect and avoid systems, L3Harris is actively involved in ACASx and other relevant working groups and at the forefront to launch new technologies that will advance safety for manned and unmanned aircraft.

By using ACAS Xu with non-cooperative sensors, we have developed an advanced, integrated detect-and-avoid hardware and software solution. It implements directional traffic antennas and sophisticated algorithms to evaluate collision and automatically execute effective maneuvers to avoid air and terrain collisions. This technology is the cornerstone for safe and effective unmanned aircraft travel and national airspace integration.

Are there any objectives or milestones approaching for L3Harris in 2023 that you could share details about?

Development versions of ACAS Xu have been flight tested on Predator, Triton, and other unmanned platforms. Successful flight test programs with ACAS Xu have totaled over 300 flight hours and 400 encounters. Current testing and milestones will enable adoption of the solution and certification to operate in commercial airspace.

Regarding Rotor Strike Alerting System (RSAS) integration, we are continuing to develop sensor agnostic solutions, built around the ability to use any number/type of sensors to detect, correlate, and track various non-cooperative objects (drones, obstacles, power lines) for pilot awareness. Future growth expansion supports ACAS Xr advanced integration, autopilot automation, GPS denied navigation, and emergency flight/landing support.

xLDR (Extra Lightweight Data Recorder) will be released later this year. Weighing 1.1Kg, this is a reduced weight version of our ED-155 LDR compliant recorder and will be available as an option for the cohesive ED-155 solutions.