Evaluation of ESL Mallina Missile Warner test equipment

Keywords: Aircraft industy, Equipment, Testing, Defence

The recently introduced MALLINA Missile Warner test equipment from British defence electronics company, Elettronica Systems (ESL), is undergoing detailed evaluation under the Office of the Secretary of Defense sponsored Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) Programme announced by the US Department of Defense. Following completion of the trials the USAF will evaluate whether this commercially existing system could meet an immediate or future need to provide MANPADS simulation on Combat Training Ranges (Plate 1).

Plate 1 Front and rear views of the new ESL UV MALLINA missile warning system stimulator

The FCT Programme is aimed at testing foreign defence equipment with a view to meeting Combat Training Range requirements and/or correct mission area shortcomings. This FCT is of particular interest to US SOCOM (Special Operational Command), the US Air National Guard and US Air Force Reserve, whose aircraft fly into threat areas, low and slow making them particularly vulnerable to MANPADS threats.

The ESL MALLINA IR/UV missile warner stimulator will need to meet the US Air Force training requirement to trigger IR/UV missile warning systems on combat aircraft. The MALLINA will simulate IR/UV rocket motor signatures for IR MANPAD surface-to-air missile threats. Aircrews will be able to observe valid missile warning systems on combat training ranges before being subjected to actual threats in combat.

Evaluation trials recently took place at Eglin Air Force Base. A tripod mounted MALLINA system was deployed stimulating missile attacks on Air Force C-130 aircraft equipped with missile warning systems.

MALLINA has been developed in collaboration with TENIX Systems, Australia and comprises of a suite of five modules. These can be custom configured to meet a large number of combined operational requirements including the full evaluation of directed infra red countermeasure systems (DIRCM), ESL MALLINA is already deployed by the RAF at the Spadeadam Electronic Warfare Training Range, the Royal Netherlands Air Force and the South African National Defence Force. MALLINA is also undergoing test and evaluation with DBA Systems in the USA.

MALLINA has been successfully integrated with the USA based Titan Systems Corporation MANPADS Integrated Threat Simulator/Stimulator (MITSS) System which was successfully demonstrated at the Battle Group Training Unit, Salisbury, UK in June 2001. In conjunction with the Titan Simulator MALLINA successfully triggered the on-board AAR-47 Missile Warners on four different aircraft flown in the trial.

This is said to confirm the effectiveness of the MITSS system as a training and tactics development vehicle.

Details available from: ESL. Tel: +44 (0)1329 282832; Website: http://www.elettronica.co.uk