IAI targets US, Russian-built jets with upgraded Ehud ACMI pods

I/ITSEC 2024 — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) used this year’s Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) to show off its newest Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) pod, as the company targets both Western and Russian-designed aircraft for potential markets.

At present, 17 air forces are operating one or more versions of the company’s Ehud-series autonomous ACMI pods, which allow air forces to conduct air-to-air combat engagements without actually firing a missile. The ACMI pod, shaped like a missile, is loaded onto a jet, and pilots are able to engage in as-close-as-possible-to-real-world combat without the weapons being launched.

The first Ehud ACMI pod was originally introduced over a decade ago, designed to go on a Raytheon infrared homing air-to-air AIM-9L Sidewinder. The company also worked with non-Russian users of the Sukhoi Su-30 and Mikoyan-29, in order to develop a version that works on any aircraft that is capable of firing the Russian-designed Vympel R-73 (AA-11), which was the mainstay infrared-homing air-to-air weapon for Russian aircraft for years.

The newest version the company is showing off at I/ITSEC is the Ehud Next Generation pod, which is designed to work with fifth-generation Western jets. In essence, that gives IAI a chance to market at the three biggest military aviation user bases: older Western jets like the F-16, older Russian jets like the MiG-29, and modern Western fighters like the F-35.

While ACMI pods have been around for years, IAI’s design gives extra oomph for the training customer, according to Ari Maman, head of business development for the company’s MLM modeling and simulation group and a former F-16 pilot with the Israeli Air Force. He called out three specific capabilities the company talks about when marketing their tech.

“The first is that the use of the Ehud pods creates real-time high-fidelity datalink training networks between groups of instrumented aircraft in an engagement of multiple platforms,” he said. “Once you make a simulated launch [using the pod] it takes into account what the other targets are doing.

“Secondly, once the exercise is complete there is the ability to carry out a complete and comprehensive debriefing of the entire engagement and all other factors that are programmed into the simulation,” he continued. “This can be done from a ground station that has recorded all of the simulated firings conducted by the pod or downloaded from the pod itself.”

Like all modern weapon systems, the data is the driver, Maman emphasized: “All of these recordings can then be used to build out a database with each successive exercise pairing up all of the elements that would be involved in an airland battle. The data can then be used to conduct an evaluation of large-scale exercises using database and incorporating all air-to-air, air-to-ground, ground-based air defense firings into an integrated air data picture.”

The third function that the Ehud pods are capable of is being a safety feature in those situations where there are multiple aircraft engaged in an exercise. The Ehud design “has a unique ability to prevent midair collisions. The computerized system on board will send a signal to a pilot if it projects the aircraft flying into an unsafe situation by sending a signal to the pilot.

“There are other features that enhance safety outside of the training range. The system has an option where the pilot can be wearing a small tablet in place of the normal pilot’s clipboard attached to his thigh that gives the complete air date picture of all the aircraft participating in the exercise. This gives the pilot who is operating as the ‘Red’ or opposing force the location of all the aircraft in his flight as well as all of those in the ‘Blue’ force.”

But perhaps what makes the Ehud most unique goes back to that willingness to design a system that can work with both Western and Russian aircraft. It is not a simple task to be able to design the different connectors that the two types of aircraft utilize, have the correct programming and algorithms in order to design one model to work with a US or European MMC and another with the Russian on-board electronic infrastructure.

“IAI are the only company who has been both invited by different governments to develop these different pods in order cover all types of fighters. It is the company’s long-running strength of being able to work with both ‘worlds,’” Maman said.