International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The U.S. Air Force has developed GPS-based instrumentation systems to support both test and training activities. In support of recent large-scale exercises, interfaces were developed to employ existing test and training assets in a synthetic battlefield. The writers propose exploration of similar approaches to overcome the challenge of developing a common approach to test and training instrumentation.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / It is tempting to conceive a program that is self-contained and to fiscally control the all the necessary developments. Such a path will lead to a program that is technically stovepiped and extremely expensive. For the test and evaluation (T&E) community, products are often developed only for single application. We do not exist in such times. The use of other program’s products and commercial products is basically required. This is the path that the Hardened Subminiature Telemetry and Sensor System (HSTSS) has taken. The HSTSS philosophy required that the technologies common to telemetry systems be examined for reduction in cost, size, ease of use, and above all the survivability under high-g or high shock environments. It was clear that HSTSS could not support all of these requirements for transmitters, batteries, electronic packaging, and sensors and be realistically affordable with a good return on investment. This paper describes how the HSTSS program has accomplished the development of new batteries, transmitters, and data acquisition devices based upon a leveraged acquisition strategy.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper will investigate the areas that must be addressed to implement a truly integrated Range instrumentation system on a GPS-based Range, using a patented L-Band commanding scheme. Hardware issues will be highlighted as well the issues to be addressed in changing from an audio tone-frequency modulated command system to a digital system incorporating encryption and spread spectrum. Some thoughts addressing costs and schedule to incorporate this approach into the architecture of Joint Advanced Missile Instrumentation (JAMI) program are also presented, as well as a discussion of the benefits to be accrued over the existing system.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1985 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / The purpose of this paper is to describe the Tri-Service effort to use the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) on Tri-Service ranges. It will describe the background, the development program, the equipment, the management team, the specifications that the equipment must satisfy, the integration into five DOD ranges, an assessment of developmental risk, a recap of logistical aspects, and will provide a development schedule.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Recent advances in acoustic detection and array processing have led to a new, state of the art, Sonobuoy Missile Impact Location System (SMILS). This system was developed for the 4950th Test Wing by E-Systems and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to support ballistic missile testing in broad ocean areas. The hardware and software required to perform the SMILS mission were developed in two different areas: 1) The flight system, installed aboard the Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft (ARIA), which provides everything necessary to guide the aircraft to the target area of Deep Ocean Transponders (DOTs), deploy sonobuoys, recover signals from the sonobuoys, and to process the recovered signals. The sonobuoy positions and impact locations of reentry vehicles are determined aboard the aircraft in real-time by telemetering the acoustic signals sent from the sonobuoys via Radio Frequency (RF) link to the aircraft. These acoustic signals are also recorded on analog tape in the aircraft. 2) The Post Mission Analysis System (PMAS), located at the 4950th Test Wing, processes the analog tapes recorded by the aircraft to do more sophisticated Processing than that performed on the aircraft, providing higher resolution of impact times and positions. This paper addressees the theory of PMAS operation and the specific approach used to perform automated acoustic detection of both narrow and wide band acoustic signals. It also addressees the processing technique employed to determine sonobuoy navigation and impact scoring.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) is developing new Theater Missile Defense (TMD) weapon systems to defend against the rapidly expanding ballistic missile threat. The tactical ballistic missile threats include systems with range capabilities greater than 1000 kilometers. The development and testing of systems such as the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3), the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), Navy Area Defense, and the System Integration Tests (SIT) to address the interoperability of this family of systems, will require the development of the Transportable Range Augmentation and Control System for Multiple Shot Engagements (TRACS - MSE). Congress has mandated that these systems be tested in multiple simultaneous engagements. These systems will be tested at several ranges to meet all the developmental and operational testers' needs. Potential range locations include White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), Kwajalein Missile Range (KMR), the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) and the Gulf Range at Eglin Air Force Base. Due to the long distances separating the target launch site and the interceptor site, the TRACS - MSE will be required at multiple sites for each range used. To be cost effective, transportable systems should be developed to augment existing capabilities. Advances in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and high data rate receivers make telemetry based solutions attractive. This article will address the requirements for range safety, for Time, Space, Position Information (TSPI) collection and processing requirements to support a TRACS - MSE capability.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper examines the issues involved in replacing the current Range safety infrastructure with an autonomous range safety system based on GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) integrated navigation system solutions. Range safety is required in the first place because current launch vehicle navigation systems cannot meet a level of trust needed to determine if the mission is really under control and on course. Existing launch vehicle navigation is generally based on attitude and acceleration sensing instrumentation that are subject to drift, initialization errors and failures. Thus, a launch vehicle can easily be under the control of a seemingly operating navigation system, yet be steering the launch vehicle along an incorrect and dangerous flight path. Inertial-based navigation systems are good, but they cannot be trusted. The function of Range safety is to assure that untrustworthy navigation is backed up with a trusted system that has positive knowledge of the launch vehicle location, and the intelligence to decide when and where a launch vehicle must be destroyed. Combining inertial navigation, GPS derived position information and knowledge-based computer control has the potential to provide trusted and autonomous Range safety functions. The issues of autonomous Range safety are addressed in this paper.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper will investigate the areas which must be addressed to implement a truly integrated Range instrumentation system on a GPS-based Range, using a patented L-Band commanding scheme. Hardware issues will be highlighted as well the issues to be addressed in changing from an audio tone-frequency modulated command system to a digital system incorporating encryption and spread spectrum. Some thoughts addressing costs and schedule to incorporate this approach into the architecture of the U. S. Air Force Range Standardization and Automation (RSA) architecture, as a candidate GPS-based Range are also presented, as well as a discussion of the benefits to be accrued over the existing system, if this approach were adopted.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Western Aeronautical Test Range (WATR) staff at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is developing a translation software called Chapter 10 Tools in response to challenges posed by post-flight processing data files originating from various on-board digital recorders that follow the Range Commanders Council Inter-Range Instrumentation Group (IRIG) 106 Chapter 10 Digital Recording Standard but use differing interpretations of the Standard. The software will read the date files regardless of the vendor implementation of the source recorder, displaying data, identifying and correcting errors, and producing a data file that can be successfully processed post-flight.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Although PCM/TDM framed data is one of the most prevalent formats handled by flight test ranges, it is often required to acquire and process other types. Examples of such non-standard data types are radar position information and meteorological data from both ground based and radiosonde systems. To facilitate the process and management of such non-standard data types, a micro-processor based system was developed to acquire and transform them into a standard PCM/TDM data frame. This obviated the expense of developing additional special software and hardware to handle such non-standard data types.