NLR delivers CH-47F(NL) Mission Support System for Royal Netherlands Air Force
After having accepted the new Boeing CH-47F(NL) Chinook helicopter on 8 October, the Netherlands Defence Helicopter Command (DHC) tested and accepted the Mission Support System for that helicopter on 11 October. The software, named ‘ChAMPS'(Chinook ACMS Mission Planning System), was developed by NLR in co-operation with Terma B.V.
Like for all helicopter types operated by DHC, CH-47F(NL) crews use the Portable Flight Planning Software (PFPS) for planning their missions. In order to load data that was planned in PFPS into the aircraft’s avionics, specific software is needed to complement and convert the data into the formats required by that aircraft. ChAMPS provides this functionality for the CH-47F(NL). It enables the crew to combine planned routes and waypoints, radio frequencies, weight & balance data and digital maps, and write it, correctly formatted, onto a memory card. This memory card will be read by the Honeywell Advanced Cockpit Management System (ACMS) in the CH-47F(NL) for use during the mission. Any updates made in-flight can be downloaded to the memory card and can be transferred back into PFPS via ChAMPS.
The Acceptance Test on 11 October completes the two-year ChAMPS development phase. This phase was executed in close co-operation with the system’s end users at Royal Netherlands Air Force 298 sqn at Gilze-Rijen air force base. A consecutive three-year service and support phase is provided for in the contract.
NLR has more than 30 years’ experience in supporting military Mission Planning & Debrief processes. Our experience flows into the plug-in components currently developed for existing mission support software, such as PFPS/FalconView, JMPS and PCDS. This experience is backed up by NLR’s capabilities in supporting military operations, in training and testing, as well as in avionics development. This enables us to understand the user’s needs quickly and to provide both hardware and software solutions that match specific requirements.
