In recent weeks, at the Experimental Training Polygon of Joint Forces of Salto di Quirra (PISQ), the "Aquila XVIII" campaign was held, conceived, organized and conducted in order to implement EW self-protection (Electronic Warfare - Electronic Warfare) on the Army UH-90A flight setups.
The activity is part of the collaboration agreement between the Italian Army (EI) and the Aeronautica Militare (AM), regarding operational support to Electronic War for the third dimension. In this context, the AVES command in coordination with the electronic warfare operational support department of tactical information brigade of the Army, responsible for generating the "EW libraries" (set of data to be loaded on board the aircraft for self-protection) and with the support of experimental flight department and electronic warfare operational technical support department of the Italian Air Force, carried out flight checks with a UH-90A helicopter of the 5th AVES “Rigel” regiment. In particular, the checks concerned the measurements of emissions in the infrared band of Flares spectral "Birdie 118 DM109" (electronic defense countermeasures), checks on release inhibitions Flares set in the EW library and the recognition of RF threats (in Radio Frequency).
This kind of preliminary activities are considered fundamental for the subsequent validation of the active countermeasures system (chaff e flare), aimed at increasing the level of self-protection of the aircraft structure in the radio frequency and electro-optical sector.
