To: Rob who wrote (1883 ) 1/26/1999 12:25:00 AM From: mark calder Read Replies (1) | Respond to
bummer day, there are a lot of posts on Yahoo detailing what happened, I posted this over there but I will reprint this news here Its not the companies press releases that we have all been waiting for but Here is some information that I have come across over the past few days.What we have heard of as the Comanchee Helmet is also known as the Aircrew Integrated Helmet (ACIH) and is also known as the HGU-56/P.Production of this helmet began in 1995. The contract was worth about $5 million for 3,800 helmets. These are standard helmets that can have the Modular Integrated Helmet Mounted Display System (MIHDS) added to them. I believe that VRD is the logical choice for the MIHDS. It meets all of the specifications. I can't think of another display that does.The Air Warrior program is developing equipment under a project called the Aircrew Integrated System (ACIS) of which the ACIH and MIHDS are apart. ACIS also includes a wearable computer called DataRover for maintenance, support, and Special Operations personnel that is being developed under Boeing's management (remember Boeing). Phase I was finished in Nov 98. At least four designs were evaluated. Winners of the Phase I design competition were to get Phase II contracts in Dec 98. Microvision was awarded a Phase II contract in Dec 98.(El-Condor Grande post) Phase II involves delivery of a prototype for testing. Phase III production for ACIS is scheduled for Dec 2001 with production running from 2002 - 2010. The production should be in the neighborhood of 15,000 units. The ACIS systems will be applied to all Army aircraft and the Army wants Air Warrior to become a joint Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force program (remember the Navy, new standard......)which would mean more units. In 1996, the budget estimate for Air Warrior through production was about $900 million. Mounted Warrior and Land Warrior are similar programs. The military wants to use the same displays for all of these systems too. Mounted Warrior is for Army vehicles like the M1 tank and the M2 Bradley and we all know what Land Warrior is.
