Publications Details

Description, operation, and maintenance information on joystick and closed-circuit television MPS-36 radar, Meppen Range, Federal Republic of Germany

Arndt, C.E.

Personnel from Stockpile Evaluation Program Division I, 7261, have been testing Joint Test Assemblies (JTAs) at Meppen Range, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) since 1984. JTA trajectories were obtained from cinetheodolite film. The MPS-36 radar at Meppen Range is required to track the aircraft before bomb release to verify the release parameters for range safety and for the bomb trajectory after release. This is a difficult task because of the low-level approach of the aircraft. Division 7261 personnel asked Tonopah Test Range Department 7170 to assist in solving radar tracking problems. We recommended a new closed-circuit television system with a zoom lens and a force-operated, two-axis joystick. This system provides the operator a means of overriding the automode of the radar and manually positioning the radar antenna in azimuth (AZ) and elevation (EL). The joystick operator keeps the target (aircraft or bomb) centered in the TV picture by applying the correct pressure to the joystick. At the same time, the radar console operator maintains automatic range tracking by assisting the range gate through ground clutter using the control level of the range gate, as a rate-aid control in automatic mode. During the period May 8-17, 1989, the visual tracking equipment was installed in the Meppen radar. On May 16, 1989 a bomb dummy unit, loft maneuver was tracked successfully. The video, with time of day, was recorded for posttest, quick-look data. In the ten years of planned testing, a twenty-fold cost savings would be achieved with incorporation of the visual tracking capability to the MPS-36 radar, rather than providing radar beacons on each JTA. 8 figs.