Marking one of the biggest leaps forward in attack capabilities in military history, Vector Software customer BAE Systems, has developed a headset that allows RAF pilots to shoot down planes simply by looking at them.
The Striker Integrated Display Helmet is fitted with an optical head tracker, with targets popping up in the visor, which provides a supposedly highly accurate missile fire with low latency, at any altitude.
Mark Bowman, Chief Test Pilot, BAE Systems: We’ve moved on enormously from where we were 20 or 30 years ago. The helmet display is most probably as significant as almost the jet engine in what it is going to do for combat capability and what the pilot can do.
A heads-up display (HUD) has been around for several years but this HUD is inside the visor and moves with the pilot’s head; effectively making the pilot part of the weapons system. The pilot can simply look at a target even if it is behind or below, lock onto it, and then fire – regardless of where the aircraft is pointing.
Mark Bowman, Chief Test Pilot, BAE Systems: Traditionally the helmet has been seen very much as a crash helmet and a walkie-talkie. What we have got now is actually a piece of not only optical equipment but something that is really technically advanced that most probably I, certainly as a young boy, only ever dreamt of but now it is very much a reality.
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