Football-sized device could transform how Air Force collects F-35 data - DefenseNews.com

WASHINGTON — An Air Force trial and valuation squadron hopes a football-sized instrumentality mounted successful an F-35 fighter′s weapons bay mightiness revolutionize however it collects in-flight information connected operational combatant jets.

Air Combat Command’s 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron astatine Nellis Air Force Base successful Nevada earlier this twelvemonth started adding these devices, dubbed the Quick Reaction Instrumentation Package, oregon QRIP, to operational F-35s. Before that enactment began successful March, QRIPs had been utilized successful a twelve trial F-35s crossed the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

And successful a Nov. 10 interrogation with Defense News, squadron commandant Lt. Col. Nathan “Sheik” Malafa said helium hopes to grow the usage of these devices to much Air Force fighters — and possibly adjacent different craft crossed the fleet — allowing it to cod and “crowd-source” formation information overmuch much cheaply than the work utilized to.

“QRIP is the extremity effect of the gains of exertion that we’re capable to usage to get everything smaller, much compact, and person a bigger impact,” Malafa said.

The Air Force regularly collects formation information from its aircraft, that is past sent backmost to contractors truthful the companies tin amended its software. At the extremity of the process, the upgraded bundle is pushed retired to combat aircraft.

In the past, Malafa said, trial F-35s recorded information with a 2,500-pound pod that took up an full weapons bay and outgo $25 cardinal apiece. Sometimes information took weeks oregon months to access. That benignant of a instrumentality was excessively cumbersome and costly to adjacent deliberation of integrating into an operational aircraft, helium said.

Advancements successful exertion and miniaturization of chips and different components made a overmuch much compact strategy possible, helium said.

Airmen successful the 59th began processing the thought for a much compact information postulation instrumentality astir 3 years ago. The information being collected by trial fighters was inadequate and not coming successful accelerated enough, helium said, prompting the squadron to brainstorm ideas.

“It was a barroom napkin benignant of idea,” Malafa said. “What if we trim the size? Because the programme was not delivering the formation trial instrumentation requirements successful clip for what we needed to bash erstwhile the F-35s went from Block 2 to Block 3. So, necessity bore that innovation.”

That thought soon became QRIP, an 8-pound instrumentality astir the size of a shot that is bolted wrong the F-35′s weapons bay without taking up each the country oregon requiring immoderate panels to beryllium removed. It tin grounds astir a terabyte of information per flight. The terms tag for a azygous Curtiss-Wright Corporation-made QRIP: $230,000, a fraction of the aged system’s cost.

The QRIP is wired to the F-35′s computers to cod conveyance strategy and ngo strategy information — everything from altitude, powerfulness levels, show and immoderate imaginable malfunctions that engineers would person to sift done aft a formation to fig retired what problems whitethorn request to beryllium fixed.

The squadron began installing QRIPs connected trial F-35s a small much than 2 years ago, Malafa said, and past began considering the anticipation of adding them to operational fighters.

The 59th has truthful acold added QRIP to 19 operational Air Force F-35As, opening successful March 2022, and much are connected the way. These F-35s are successful a assortment of locations, though Malafa would not specify where, and immoderate person taken portion successful exercises extracurricular of the continental U.S.

Having the QRIP loaded connected operational F-35s flying real-world missions volition let the Air Force to cod a greater assortment of formation information that it wouldn’t get successful a trial environment, Malafa said.

“They’re flying successful Alaska wherever there’s mountains, [and successful other] antithetic types connected environments and collecting that benignant of data,” Malafa said of the operational F-35s.

Right now, QRIP is not connected immoderate different craft but Malafa said the squadron wants to enactment it connected F-22s adjacent — archetypal trial Raptors adjacent year, and yet moving to operational F-22s. An F-22-mounted QRIP is “well down the improvement pipeline” and being tested, helium said.

The adjacent measurement volition beryllium moving with F-22 shaper Lockheed Martin to fig retired the champion mode to integrate QRIP into the F-22, though Malafa couldn’t accidental erstwhile it mightiness beryllium integrated into the F-22.

The squadron is besides moving connected a QRIP for F-16s and A-10s, helium said. F-15s already cod capable data, helium said, but mightiness request a caller strategy to negociate the information. And Malafa said his squadron is looking astatine however to get these devices into MQ-9 Reapers and bombers specified arsenic the B-52 Stratofortress.

And arsenic the Air Force moves guardant with its B-21 Raider, Next Generation Air Dominance household of combatant systems and drone wingmen known arsenic collaborative combat aircraft, Malafa said it volition beryllium important for the Air Force to “bake in” this benignant of information postulation capableness from the start. That way, the work won’t person to spell backmost years aboriginal and retrofit them with exertion similar QRIP.

The formation information QRIP collects volition assistance amended the ngo information files the F-35 uses to recognize its situation and cognize what threats to hunt for, Malafa said. It volition besides let the Air Force to find and hole bugs successful the software, cod accusation that quality offices could use, and assistance maintainers find oregon foretell wherever the F-35 needs to beryllium fixed.

And if thing goes incorrect with a combatant down the line, the excavation of information collected by QRIP implicit the years could assistance the Air Force spell backmost and effort to find aboriginal informing signs of the problem.

Malafa said the Air Force wants to enactment with companies that supply artificial quality and instrumentality learning exertion to make instrumentality sets that could fto it amended usage the information collected by QRIP.

“One of the things we’re looking astatine doing [with QRIP-collected data] is that predictive maintenance,” Malafa said. “If you tin get up of the ballgame connected that, that’s a game-changer.”