A nav/attack system (short for navigation/attack system) is an integrated suite of sensors and navigation equipment that allows a military aircraft to locate and attack specific ground targets or conduct aerial reconnaissance with a high degree of precision.
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, marine navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information to other electronics, frequently a computer processor. A sensor is always used with other electronics.
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:
Since the late 1950s, nav/attack systems helped pilots increase the accuracy of releasing ordnance. A computer program would record the aircraft's velocity and use it to pinpoint their location in relationship with the target's location. Early integrated nav/attack systems suffered from poor reliability. Improvements in digital computing technology, advent of the microchip, have resulted in substantially more sophisticated and effective equipment.
Computing is any activity that uses computers. It includes developing hardware and software, and using computers to manage, process, and communicate information for various purposes. Computing is a critically important, integral component of modern industrial technology. Major computing disciplines include computer engineering, software engineering, computer science, information systems, and information technology.
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece of semiconductor material that is normally silicon. The integration of large numbers of tiny transistors into a small chip results in circuits that are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less expensive than those constructed of discrete electronic components. The IC's mass production capability, reliability, and building-block approach to circuit design has ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of designs using discrete transistors. ICs are now used in virtually all electronic equipment and have revolutionized the world of electronics. Computers, mobile phones, and other digital home appliances are now inextricable parts of the structure of modern societies, made possible by the small size and low cost of ICs.
A typical modern nav/attack system is based around an inertial navigation system (INS) that allows the aircrew to locate the target area without relying on active sensors such as radar that might alert enemy combatants. INS can help calculate "drift", changes in course that deviate from the target, the nav/attack system can guide the aircraft to the target or be used as a tool to help guide the pilot to the target.
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the object(s). Radio waves from the transmitter reflect off the object and return to the receiver, giving information about the object's location and speed.
Modern systems typically provide an automatic weapons release; the aircraft can be programmed to release the ordnance before it misses the target. The aircraft's computer system will release the ordnance unless the pilot chooses to override that command and release it instead. The navigation program accounts for factors such as wind and velocity. Early nav/attack systems were primitive but paved the way for the systems we have today. Today's systems give pilots deadlier accuracy because of technological advances that have developed since the first model.
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