Kiltonge
Greetings Earthling
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Noticed this recruitment ad in Av Week from February 1966 listing various contemporaneous projects. Most are well-known missile projects however a couple are intriguing.
ADO 51 was USAF project for advanced tactical missile avionics. Later renamed 679A Advanced Tactical Missile Guidance Technology Program with emphasis on terminal guidance:
Running in parallel was ADO 53, the USAF "Mk.2 avionics suite" which included evaluation of a Hughes laser rangefinder. The original idea was that 51 and 53 would provide a toolbox of technologies that could be applied to forthcoming missile and aircraft projects, instead of each implementing its avionics from scratch. A majestic goal, but in the end 51 only went into SRAM ( maybe? ) and 53 into the F-111D. But they probably seeded the technology landscape for the 1970s missile projects.
Agent 007: no idea.
ADO 51 was USAF project for advanced tactical missile avionics. Later renamed 679A Advanced Tactical Missile Guidance Technology Program with emphasis on terminal guidance:
- Hughes won a two-year $850,000 contract for Sarcalm, a synthetic-aperture radar.
- LTV did work on downward-facing terrain correlation radar
- Goodyear got $150,000 for an EO sensor that matched the live scene to a preloaded map
- Martin got $178,000 for semi-active laser seeker.
- Space General got $400,000 for microwave and millimetric radiometry
Running in parallel was ADO 53, the USAF "Mk.2 avionics suite" which included evaluation of a Hughes laser rangefinder. The original idea was that 51 and 53 would provide a toolbox of technologies that could be applied to forthcoming missile and aircraft projects, instead of each implementing its avionics from scratch. A majestic goal, but in the end 51 only went into SRAM ( maybe? ) and 53 into the F-111D. But they probably seeded the technology landscape for the 1970s missile projects.
Agent 007: no idea.
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