CCA: A High-Tech Solution for Advanced Air Combat Operations

Collaborative combat aircraft puts new technology into service faster and more cost effectively by pairing unmanned fighter aircraft equipped with the latest weapons, sensors, and battle management systems with older manned fighter aircraft.

The collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) program proposed by the U.S. Air Force teams autonomous (unmanned) aircraft with manned aircraft in an effort to boost capabilities, save time and money, and limit the risks to human pilots. Next-generation unmanned fighter aircraft, equipped with the latest weapons, sensors, and networking and battle management systems are paired with fifth or sixth generation manned fighter aircraft. In this way, the newer technology is put into service much faster and more cost-effectively. CCA are less expensive to build and deploy than new fighter jets and eliminate the time and expense of recruiting large numbers of pilots and training them on new planes. It also limits the number of human pilots being put at risk.

“The idea of the CCA, from my perspective, is having nodes in the sky. If you’re trying to create a communication network in the sky, in any given airspace, the more pieces of flight hardware or aircraft we have, the better and quicker our communication is going to be. That is very expensive and dangerous, if you have a pilot in every single one of these aircrafts,” said Braden Brinkerhoff, western regional sales manager at SV Microwave. The CCA effort adds unmanned aircraft support for every one-man fighter jet. That support can be for gathering and sharing intel, for weapon support, or even for refueling.

“As a supplier to these military primes, [the large companies that have direct contracts with the Department of Defense (DoD) for major programs and systems], the content and the hardware that we are supplying is pretty much the same stuff we’ve been doing with all the F18s, F22s, and F35s. It’s all MIL-spec parts, although the standards vary from program to program,” said Brinkerhoff. One big push, not only on the CCA effort but across the board including for high-reliability military components, he said, is shorter lead times. “Our customers need everything very fast. So, we are creating a portfolio of products that they can see on our website and determine, ‘This is qualified to this and if I need it qualified to something else, I can upscreen it quickly.’ Our efforts are greatly focused on how to get parts in customers’ hands sooner. This starts with helping them speed up their design decisions and then leaning out our internal build and production processes to shorten lead times.”

Advanced connectivity product solutions for evolving MIL/Aero applications

Connector companies have their eyes on the future as they develop new products and enhance capabilities to meet current and imminent challenges. Amphenol Pcd’s USB3CFTV, available from Interstate Connecting Components (ICC),  is based on the MIL/Aero workhorse 38999 and incorporates the familiar USB-C interface, which is attractive as a future-proof solution. “We’re trying to get away from interfaces like the USB A and RJ45 since use of USB C has become more mainstream,” said Len Noy, product specialist for Amphenol Pcd’s regular network solutions.

Amphenol Pcd’s USB3CFTV is a new rugged USB3.0 connector with Type C interface. This highly customizable, fully reversible connector has various data transmission and power delivery capabilities in a size 11 38999 shell. Based on MIL-DTL-38999 series III, plugs and receptacles are mated with a Tri-Start thread coupling mechanism. This solution strengthens and protects devices against fluids, dust, shocks, and disconnection due to vibration.

CCA covers a wide range of applications and missions and that means it includes a variety of technologies and connector product types. “Often these applications have a lot of different circuit boards, or circuit card assemblies, stacked together as kind of a mezzanine of circuit cards. The connectors are soldered on each board with different types of bullets, connecting the RF signal from each card. That RF signal goes from an antenna, usually on a wing tip, through the wing of the plane, through the belly of the plane, into some centralized location or box. That signal needs to go on two different circuit cards that talk to each other. The RF signal gets converted to a digital signal that goes into the computer processors,” said Brinkerhoff. “In that very confined area of this box, real estate comes at a premium so we’ve focused on not only providing a small form factor line of connectors, such as our SMP, SMPM, and SMPS connector lines, but also making sure those are not going to break the bank for a connector.” He explained that some high-performance connectors exceed the requirements for a particular application, adding cost for unnecessary features when all that is needed is the small form factor. “There’s definitely a balancing act,” he said.

The Amphenol Socapex μ Con series offers the small factor that meets the customer need for a smaller, faster, lighter connector. It comes in a 38999, ruggedized for military and, when using Amphenol cables, can maintain data integrity up to 40 gigs.

SV Microwave’s spring bullets are backed by comprehensive data and extensive flight heritage.

The small size creates other issues as well. The end customer purchases many different components from other vendors, and every vendor has its own tolerances and capabilities. This makes misalignments a common problem. To address this, SV Microwave developed a spring bullet, a spring-loaded contact that will connect two cards and essentially absorb some of that variation in tolerance. “Nothing is ever going to be perfectly lined up, but our spring bullet will allow for a slight misalignment and still perform as if everything is perfectly aligned,” said Brinkerhoff.

Pre-tinning or de-golding capabilities from SV Microwave strengthen solder joints for high-vibration applications.

Soldering presents another issue. “Most connectors are gold plated. Gold is not a great metal for strong solder joints. We have in-house processes to pre-tin or de-gold. Basically, we cover that gold-plated portion of the connector in a solder — any combination of, for example, lead and tin. This de-golds that connector so it will be more solderable but does not impact the performance of the connector at all. This results in a much better solder joint, necessary for the CCA program where, as flight hardware, they are subject to extended periods of high vibration especially during takeoff and landing, but also over the course of the whole flight,” said Brinkerhoff.

Backshells

Backshells are another important consideration for circular connectors in this rugged environment. CCA require high temperature, lightweight, small backshells. “Stainless steel and composite are two materials that will be most useful for this application,” said Aman Bhargava, product specialist, Amphenol Pcd. “The most important consideration is the type of connectors you’re using. We already have a number of backshells in our manufacturing range, but we can do custom backshells as well. Every time you hear composite, think lightweight. Every time you hear stainless steel, think high vibration and high heat. If you need a combination of all three, we can provide a custom solution.”

To learn more about the companies mentioned in this article, visit the Preferred Supplier pages for Amphenol Pcd, Interstate Connecting Components (ICC), and SV Microwave.

Like this article? Check out our other Board-to-Board, Custom, Mil/Aero Market articles, and our 2024 Article Archives.

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