GPS TRANSLATOR DATA RECORDER AND DATA RELAY LINK DEVELOPMENT

GPS TRANSLATORS ARE PRESENTLY USED BY BOTH THE TRIDENT AN ERIS TEST PROGRAMS TO PROVIDE REAL-TIME TSPI DATA FOR MISSILE GUIDANCE AND RANGE SAFETY. ONE PRESENT LIMITATION IS THE SITE AND COST OF THE TRANSLATOR PROCESSING SYSTEM (TPS) WHICH CONSTRAINS IT TO A FEW GROUND-BASED IN ALLATIONS. THIS LIMITS THE RANGE OF OPERATION OF THE TRANSLATOR BASED TRACKING SYSTEM AND ALSO THE NUMBER OF PARTICICPANTS THAT CAN BE TRACKED. SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS AND COST SAVINGS COULD BE ACHIEVED THROUGH THE USE OF A TRANSLATOR RECORDER OR DATA RELAY LINK. A RECORDER WOULD ALLOW DATA FROM MULTIPLE TRANSLATORS TO BE STORED FOR LATER PROCESSING, THUS INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS THAT CAN BE TRACKED. THE LOW SIZE AND WEIGHT OF THE TRANSLATOR DATA RECORDER AND DATA RELAY LINK ALSO ALLOWS THEM TO BE CARRIED ON BOARD AN AIRCRAFT, WHICH SIGNIFICIANTLY INCREASES THE RANGE OF OPERATION OF THE TRACKING SYSTEM AND PERMITS GROUND-BASED PARTICICPANTS TO BE TRACKED. UNDER THE PHASE I STUDY, THE REQUIREMENTS WILL BE IDENTIFIEDFOR A TRANSLATOR DATA RECORDER AND A DATA RELAY LINK AND A STUDY WILL BE PERFORMED OF EXISTING EQUIPMENT THAT MAY BE ADAPTED FOR THIS PURPOSE. BASED ON A COST/PERFORMANCE TRADE-OFF ANALYSIS A SYSTEMS DESIGN WILL BE SELECTED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF A PROTOTYPE UNDER PHASE II.