Dual-Cockpit Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System delivered to the U.S. Navy
The first factory-installed, dual-cockpit F/A-18F Super Hornet Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) was delivered to the U.S. Navy, providing significant improvements to in-flight crew coordination. Since 2000, contracts have been issued for more than 2,500 such systems.
The JHMCS allows flight crew members to rapidly acquire and designate a target simply by looking at it. The two-seat variant places a JHMCS helmet on both crew members, giving each the capability to aim weapons and sensors as well as a visual indication of where each crew member is looking.
The enhanced aircraft was delivered to the VX-9 Vampires of Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, Calif., and is scheduled to deliver 77 of the two-seat JHMCS-equipped aircraft to the U.S. Navy over the next three years.
Warfighters used the JHMCS operationally for the first time during Operation Iraqi Freedom. By placing an aiming cross, projected on the helmet visor, over the desired target and pressing a button, pilots can quickly and easily aim weapons and sensors to designate and attack airborne or ground targets. JHMCS also displays tactical information, aircraft altitude, airspeed, gravitational pull and angle of attack on the visor to increase the crew members’ situational awareness.
The inclusion of JHMCS in the aft seat of two-seat aircraft gives the weapons system officer the same weapons management capabilities as the pilot. The system vastly reduces the amount of required verbal discussion and improves the ability to react rapidly to targets and/or threats that are visually detected by either crew member.