Cirrus’ Upgraded ACOTS Enters Operational Service with RAAF

10 November 2012

Cirrus Air Combat Officer - Training System (all photos : Cirrus)

Cirrus Managing Director Mr. Peter Freed has announced that Drop 3 of the Cirrus Air Combat Officer Training System (ACO-TS) has now entered into operational service with the RAAF School of Air Warfare (SAW, East Sale).

This follows completion by the RAAF of two months of Operational Test and Evaluation of the upgraded ACO-TS. Cirrus was contracted in Dec 2011 by DMO Training Aircraft Systems Program Office (TASPO), to develop the upgraded ACO-TS. Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) completed in June 2012, and ACO-TS completed acceptance testing and airworthiness certification ahead of schedule in August 2012.

The wide-ranging project improved ACO-TS display and management of tactical and mission data, with the centre-piece being improvements to the radar simulation, addressing rendering of ground terrain to 30m x 30m fidelity replete with cultural features (roads, dams etc.), and modeling of environmental impacts on sensor imagery.

The Cirrus ACO-TS is based on Cirrus Simulation Training Network and Sensor Simulation Engine (STN & SSE) technologies which have been adapted to meet the RAAF’s requirements under previous contracts.

Mr Freed stated that "The engineering undertaken on this project spans a wide range of activities usually regarded as high risk, including scientific algorithms, complex software development and integration and formal aerospace regulatory processes. Cirrus’ team is very pleased to have delivered ahead of schedule and to our client’s high expectation, and we are particularly pleased with the close cooperation we have enjoyed with TASPO and SAW over the course of the project.”

Mr. Freed also announced that TASPO has recently issued it new taskings related to the provision of additional software and services for the ACO-TS support infrastructure.

(Cirrus)