London: British military pilots will soon don
a new helmet which will allow them to shoot down enemy jets by
just looking at them -- a breakthrough that could put an end
to the century-old concept of the aerial dogfight.
The 'Striker Integrated Display Helmet' is fitted
with tiny optical sensors that pick up when the pilot locks
onto enemy aircraft.
They are are then picked up by further sensors in the
cockpit, allowing pilots to fire a missile to a target.
According to experts, the innovative 250,000-pound
headset marks one of the biggest leaps forward in attack
capabilities in military history, the Daily Mail reported.
All a pilot has to do is glance at an enemy aircraft and
then steer a missile towards it with his, or her, mind.
Targets pop-up in the pilot's visor, at which point he
can select by voice command and fire.
As long as the enemy's aircraft is in sight -- whether
that be below, above or to either side -- a missile can be
directed towards it.
The breakthrough is said to have brought to an end the
century-old concept of the aerial dogfight, in which one plane
must be directly behind another in order to hit it with
firepower.
"It means the end of the dogfight,' leading RAF pilot
Mark Bowman was quoted as saying.
"Traditionally you have to get behind an aircraft to lock
on. With this, I steer the weapons with my head."
The helmet has been developed by Britain's BAE Systems
and has been subjected to extensive flight trials in RAF
Typhoon planes.
A spokesperson for BAE said: "An advanced optical head
tracker is integrated into the helmet system to provide a high
accuracy/low latency solution for low, medium, and high
altitude operations.
"While the system has been designed for the Eurofighter
Typhoon, its modular design can be applied to all platforms,
both rotary and fixed wing."
PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 06, 2011, 18:53