Ramona Adams
BAE Systems has secured a contract from Lockheed Martin to modernize head-up displays of the United Arab Emirates’ F-16 fighter aircraft fleet.
The British defense contractor said Thursday it will replace the fleet’s analog HUDs with digital displays using its Digital Light Engine technology.
Lockheed received a potential $1.6 billion order from UAE in November 2017 to upgrade the country’s F-16 planes.
BAE will work to install DLE HUDs into the F-16’s existing HUD space without modifying the aircraft, cabling or computing systems.
Andy Humphries, director of advanced displays at BAE, said the DLE platforms will not show a noticeable difference in performance and will retain existing optics, video camera and control panel.
The company intends for its fully digital system to help customers reduce lifecycle costs by 20 percent and demonstrate four times higher reliability than analog systems.
DLE HUD is designed to feature high-resolution symbology that can be viewed in any flight condition and support future symbology and video updates, BAE noted.
BAE produced the analog HUDs for both F-16 and F-22Â platforms and secured a contract last year to supply DLE technology for the U.S. Air Force‘s F-22 aircraft.
