yasin_khan
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It's taken nine years, but aviators and aircrews flying real-world missions are getting a new rescue radio.
The Combat Survivor Evader Locator radio -- CSEL for short -- went into operation with the Navy carrier USS John C. Stennis and Carrier Air Wing 14 in June, said Air Force Maj. Dave Micheletti, program manager for CSEL.
The Army begins fielding the radios this fall when pilots assigned to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division take CSELs with them into Iraq.The Air Force is scheduled to begin training aircrew members with CSELs in 2005. The Air Force Special Operations Command should go operational with them in late 2005, Micheletti said.
If the CSEL master plan is carried through, the services will buy more than 30,000 of the Boeing-built radios and supporting systems of base stations.
But the program still faces one significant acquisition hurdle. The Pentagon has yet to approve the CSEL's full-rate production.
Micheletti and others involved with managing the program at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, said they hope the authorization from the Defense Acquisition Board will come in November.
It has been rewarding to see the radio in the hands of aircrews, Micheletti said. Navy fliers were impressed with the radio's ability to withstand the wear and tear of day-to-day use.
"They call it the 'hammer,'" Micheletti said.
Navy fliers on the Stennis declined to talk about CSEL.
"It is premature for us to give our opinions on CSEL," said Stennis spokesman Navy Lt. Corey Barker. "We have not had enough time to fully test it, operationally."
Among the first Air Force members to use CSEL are instructors at the service's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.
The instructors have been satisfied with how simple the radio is to use, said a staff sergeant SERE instructor who asked that his name not be used.
Directions displayed on the radio's menu screen so easily guide users through their options that even someone not familiar with the radio could operate it, the instructor said.
By the end of 2005, the 7,000 students who pass annually through the SERE school will get CSEL training. They'll also learn how to use other rescue radios, such as the HOOK-112 and PRC-90.
Airmen who have already been through SERE courses will be taught how to use the CSEL at their home bases.
When CSEL was envisioned in 1996, the goal was to have the radio fielded by the end of 1998.
The shootdown of F-16 pilot Capt. Scott O'Grady over Bosnia in 1995 had put a focus on such problems with existing rescue radios as the lack of satellite communications; no electronic way to identify a downed pilot's location; and signals that could be traced by enemy search parties.
CSEL has the ability to use secure satellite communications links and Global Positioning System technology so that a downed airman will know his exact location -- and rescuers will, too.
During CSEL's development phase, the project was slowed by technical challenges and a growing list of capabilities commanders wanted the radio to have.
While aircrews waited for CSEL, the services began buying HOOK-112 radios. The HOOK-112 was intended as an interim solution until CSEL was fielded, but rescue experts said it will be used side by side for years with CSEL.
A problem is that CSEL and HOOK-112 radios can't communicate with each other in the field.
http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=380870
The Combat Survivor Evader Locator radio -- CSEL for short -- went into operation with the Navy carrier USS John C. Stennis and Carrier Air Wing 14 in June, said Air Force Maj. Dave Micheletti, program manager for CSEL.
The Army begins fielding the radios this fall when pilots assigned to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division take CSELs with them into Iraq.The Air Force is scheduled to begin training aircrew members with CSELs in 2005. The Air Force Special Operations Command should go operational with them in late 2005, Micheletti said.
If the CSEL master plan is carried through, the services will buy more than 30,000 of the Boeing-built radios and supporting systems of base stations.
But the program still faces one significant acquisition hurdle. The Pentagon has yet to approve the CSEL's full-rate production.
Micheletti and others involved with managing the program at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, said they hope the authorization from the Defense Acquisition Board will come in November.
It has been rewarding to see the radio in the hands of aircrews, Micheletti said. Navy fliers were impressed with the radio's ability to withstand the wear and tear of day-to-day use.
"They call it the 'hammer,'" Micheletti said.
Navy fliers on the Stennis declined to talk about CSEL.
"It is premature for us to give our opinions on CSEL," said Stennis spokesman Navy Lt. Corey Barker. "We have not had enough time to fully test it, operationally."
Among the first Air Force members to use CSEL are instructors at the service's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.
The instructors have been satisfied with how simple the radio is to use, said a staff sergeant SERE instructor who asked that his name not be used.
Directions displayed on the radio's menu screen so easily guide users through their options that even someone not familiar with the radio could operate it, the instructor said.
By the end of 2005, the 7,000 students who pass annually through the SERE school will get CSEL training. They'll also learn how to use other rescue radios, such as the HOOK-112 and PRC-90.
Airmen who have already been through SERE courses will be taught how to use the CSEL at their home bases.
When CSEL was envisioned in 1996, the goal was to have the radio fielded by the end of 1998.
The shootdown of F-16 pilot Capt. Scott O'Grady over Bosnia in 1995 had put a focus on such problems with existing rescue radios as the lack of satellite communications; no electronic way to identify a downed pilot's location; and signals that could be traced by enemy search parties.
CSEL has the ability to use secure satellite communications links and Global Positioning System technology so that a downed airman will know his exact location -- and rescuers will, too.
During CSEL's development phase, the project was slowed by technical challenges and a growing list of capabilities commanders wanted the radio to have.
While aircrews waited for CSEL, the services began buying HOOK-112 radios. The HOOK-112 was intended as an interim solution until CSEL was fielded, but rescue experts said it will be used side by side for years with CSEL.
A problem is that CSEL and HOOK-112 radios can't communicate with each other in the field.
http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=380870