Defence Story | Enhancing capabilities to meet today’s operational challenge
Video / May 4, 2021
Transcript
I am Capt Nicolas Poirier and I'm one of the few Flight Test Engineer in the RCAF. What I do is I evaluate new technology that goes on the aircraft and make sure we, we go out, we take it for a spin and we make sure it's safe before releasing it to the operational squadrons.
The Strong, Secure, Engaged Policy is really the backbone of what we do here at AETE. So, in the acquisition of new technologies, we support any acquisition and make sure they work as they should and they will be the best equipment for the RCAF.
The second initiative that we support is the recapitalization of old technology. The Sniper Pod is a great example of that initiative where we took an older piece of equipment and we enhanced its capability and make sure it meets today's operational challenge. The Sniper Pod is like a camera that we have on the aircraft that allows us to see a lot of features and also to pick up targets, track them and that is extremely useful during combat missions. So, the Sniper Pod project itself is, we're adding new functionalities to the Sniper Pod and we're also relocating it to a better location on the aircraft. It's really our eyes on the ground when we're in the aircraft. So, why AETE was involved is because the aircraft never flown in that configuration before. So, we were tasked to evaluate everything and make sure the aircraft and the Sniper Pod are safe to fly in that regime.
So, the kind of test that we're gonna be conducting on the CF-18 for the Sniper Pod project is what we call the envelope expansion program. So, basically, we take the aircraft, we start slow and we build up our way, always going a bit faster and pulling a bit more G every time we go fly all the way to the limit of the aircraft. So, that will ensure us that the pod and the aircraft are safe throughout the regime... And we're also gonna be testing all the new functionalities to make sure they work as advertised.
So, what we've done right now, we did some, what we call baseline testing: we went and flight the aircraft without the Sniper Pod and we pulled the G to make sure, we have like a bunch of accelerometers and gages. We make sure that they work before we put the actual Sniper pod.
That program, that project is expected to give enhanced capabilities of the Sniper pod so it's gonna give the aircrew more capabilities in any flying situation. So, the project of enhancing that capability, that's huge because it's a piece of equipment that we use all the time.
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