ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper discusses the methodology, requirements, tests, and implementation plan for the live demonstration of the Enhanced Flight Termination System (EFTS) using a missile program at two locations in Florida: Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) and Tyndall AFB. The demonstration included the integration of EFTS Flight Termination Receivers (FTRs) onto the missile and the integration of EFTS-program-developed transmitter assets with the mission control system at Eglin and Tyndall AFBs. The initial test stages included ground testing and captive-carry flights, followed by a launch in which EFTS was designated as the primary flight termination system for the launch.

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 / As the size of missiles and UAVs shrink, so does the volume available for the Flight Termination System (FTS). Small, light weight FTS systems open up applications not possible with the larger and heavier conventional FTS systems. This paper presents a novel approach for the design, implementation and test of a subminiature Flight Terminate System Receiver for use in the Subminiature Flight Safety System (SFSS). This receiver implements the new digital-based Enhanced Flight Termination System (EFTS) protocol, while maintaining a volume of less than 1 cubic inch with power consumption of less than 2 watts. Combining all of the necessary functionality into a small package while meeting the rigorous requirements of the Range Commanders Council (RCC) specifications (EMI, vibration and shock) presented significant challenges. The Subminiature Enhanced Flight Termination Receiver used in the SFSS has been named the "SEFTR".

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The Range Commanders Council "Flight Termination Systems Commonality Standard," RCC 319-92, has been written with the noble goal of providing "common design, test, and documentation requirements for Flight Termination Systems (FTS)." As is often the case with standards of any kind, the devil is in the details! The Army TACMS (ATACMS) Block II Flight Termination/Telemetry System design has been significantly affected by the constraints imposed by RCC 319-92 as well as by Lockheed Martin Vought Systems customers' interpretations of those constraints and requirements. Important system elements are discussed along with some of the engineering decisions made to achieve compliance and the rationale behind those decisions. It is hoped that this monograph will acquaint potential users of RCC 319-92 with some of the issues involved in achieving compliance.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper describes the development of a PC based IRIG tone generator and flight termination transmitter. The tone generator and flight termination transmitter card are part of a flight line test set. The test set has several PC based cards which include an S-Band telemetry receiver, a bit synchronizer, a decommutator, an encryption support card and the flight termination transmitter card. The test set can perform a complete end to end test of a weapon’s flight termination system prior to loading on an aircraft.

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The PAM representation was used to formulate a reduced-complexity detector for the Enhanced Flight Termination System (EFTS) whose performance is 5.6 dB better than limiter-discriminator detection when no phase noise is present and 3.4 dB better in the presence of expected phase noise in EFTS.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Range Commanders Council (RCC) Range Safety Group (RSG) is conducting a study into the next generation of ground-based flight termination technology, known as the Enhanced Flight Termination System (EFTS) study. The study was initiated by the RCC in April 2000 and scheduled to be complete in March 2002. The Government is performing the study with support from contractors and academia. In addition to the RSG, the Telemetry Group, Frequency Management Group, Telecommunications and Timing Group of the RCC support the study. Additionally, the National Security Agency is providing key support along with vendors who design, build, and test range safety systems. This paper will describe the background, goals, and current status of the study.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Range Safety Systems are used for destruction of a vehicle should a malfunction cause the vehicle to veer off course. All vehicles launched into space require implementation of a Range Safety System. For years the IRIG receivers have been used with relatively good success. Unfortunately, the IRIG receivers do not provide a high level of security. High alphabet receivers were later developed for use on the big launchers (Atlas, Delta, Titan, etc) and the manned missions (Shuttle) to provide added security. With the IRIG based system, several problems have occurred resulting in the loss millions of dollars worth of equipment. Due to the problems that have occurred it has become apparent that there is a need for a more secure, low cost, type of range safety receiver. This paper describes the design and development of the prototype EFTS system. Mission critical parameters are discussed including selection of the encryption and forward error correction algorithms. Actual measured performance including message error rate characteristic is presented.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / Development is currently underway to produce a dual redundant Flight Termination System (FTS) capable Missile Telemetry Section. This FTS will mainly consist of a conformal wraparound antenna, two flight termination safe & arm (FTS&A) devices, two flight termination receivers (FTR), two explosive foil initiators (EFI) and destruct charge. This paper will discuss the current status of the development of these FTS components along with the process of obtaining the Flight Certification from Range and System Safety to fly this newly outfitted missile on a governmental test range.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper proposes a modification of the high alphabet method of data transmission over an RF carrier. The system maps eleven characters into three tones. The three tones are Frequency Modulated onto an RF carrier. The 165 unique characters can be utilized for data transmission. The advantages of this system are: 1. Longer duration data words which have narrow bandwidth yielding a high signal to noise ratio. 2. Digital Signal Processing can be utilized to reconstruct characters from the tri-tone encoding. 3. The system will be less susceptible to external interference than normal Frequency Shift Keying system. The majority of the three tone burst would have to masked in order to loose a data word.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Next generation flight termination systems (FTSs) will use digital technologies to verify the authenticity of range safety commands by command receiver-decoders located on each vehicle. This paper will discuss the general principles behind simplex message authentication using a block encryption cipher, and presents examples for demonstration.