The 96th Test Wing’s Seekers and Sensors Test Flight provides an end-to-end test and evaluation capability for electro-optic/infrared (IR) and radio frequency (RF) systems and threat system performance to support weapons system platform survivability programs; camouflage/ concealment and deception assessments; and countermeasure and counter-countermeasure, threat system exploitation, blue system effectiveness, and vulnerability studies.
SATIRS on F-15E
This extensive weapon systems performance and target signature measurement capability provides calibrated data across the full electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet (UV), visible, short-wave infrared (SWIR), mid-wave infrared (MWIR), and long-wave infrared (LWIR) broadband; MWIR, LWIR, and UV spectral; SWIR and MWIR hyperspectral; and millimeter-wave (MMW) C, X, Ku, Ka, and W RF bands—all fully coherent and fully polarimetric (VV, VH, HV and HH transmit and receive channels) with 2-GHz bandwidth capability. Flexible air/ground instrumentation platforms allow measurement of all surface and airborne targets. Weapon system performance data and target signatures are used to develop/validate digital and hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) models for virtual missile-to-target engagements, etc.
Open-air assets include the Missile Warning Sensor Stimulator, Seeker Test Van, Signature Test and Evaluation Facility (with a 300-ft tower and rail-based target movement and rotating platform), missile plume simulators, Advanced MMW Imaging Radar System Rail-Synthetic Aperture Radar, MMW Obscurant Characterization System, Lynx: Ku-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar, Mobile Radiometric Instrumentation Tower System, and three flight certified pod-based platforms (the Beam Approach Seeker Evaluation System [BASES], the Calibrated IR/visible/ UV Ground and Airborne Radiometric Spectrometer [CIGARS], and the Supersonic Airborne Tri-Gimbal Infrared System [SATIRS]). Finally, the Eglin Mobile Missile Launcher System completes the end-to-end test capability, providing live launch capability for man-portable air-defense systems against real or simulated aircraft.