Developmental flight testing of a digital terrain system for the USAF F-16

The United States Air Force decided to integrate a Digital Terrain System into all F-16s to reduce the number of controlled flight into terrain mishaps. Through the use of a digital map of the Earth used in conjunction with the F-16's own inertial navigation system and radar altimeter, the DTS provides the F-16 with an all-attitude, complete-envelope, ground and obstacle collision avoidance system with passive terrain following and bomb ranging capabilities. The F16 Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB, CA recently completed the second and final phase of the DTS development program. This flight test program spanned two years and flew over 150 test sorties. The system was shown to considerably reduce the pilot's workload and increase situation awareness, especially at night, in low visibility conditions and low-level, high workload environments. In addition, it provided valuable ground and obstacle collision avoidance warnings that should decrease any further F-16 mishaps.