미공군, 신형 사출좌석을 경쟁을 통해 선정

[위종민]

미공군의 수명주기관리센터가 현재 콜린스 에어로스페이스사제 ACES II 사출좌석을 장착하고 있는 F-15, F-16, F-22와 B-1에 장착할 사출좌석에 대한 정보제공 요구 공고를 올렸네요. 아직 경쟁입찰이 확정된 사항은 아닙니다. 

1970년대 개발된 ACES II는 유지보수를 위해 캐노피와 일부 장비를 제거할 필요가 있는 등의 문제가 있으며, ACES 5나 마틴 베이커제 US18E와 같은 신형 좌석은 가볍거나 무거운 파일럿을 모두 수용 가능하며 승무원의 머리, 목, 팔다리를 보호하는 시스템을 갖추고 있고 유지보수시 캐노피를 제거할 필요성이 줄었다고 합니다. 

F-35와 T-6, T-38에는 마틴 베이커제 사출좌석이 장착돼 있고, 해외판매용 F-16 블록 70엔 US18E가 장착된다고 합니다. T-7A 레드호크에는 ACES 5가 장착돼 있다고 하네요. 

Air Force Opens the Door to Competition for New Ejection Seat (airandspaceforces.com)

A variation of the ACES V ejection seat is shown in one of the wind tunnels at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn., Sept. 5, 2023. Ejection seat testing was recently conducted at Arnold for the first time since 1997. U.S. Air Force photo by Bradley Hicks

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Air Force Opens the Door to Competition for New Ejection Seat

Aug. 22, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force has cracked the door open to a competition for its Next-Generation Ejection Seat, four years after awarding a sole-source contract for the program. 

In a “sources sought synopsis” released Aug. 16, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center announced it wants to “gather additional information on the current state and availability of vendors which can provide an ejection seat that meets Air Force safety and sustainment requirements” for the F-15, F-16, F-22, and B-1. 

All four aircraft currently fly with the ACES II ejection seat, built by Collins Aerospace. 

The Air Force announcement does not promise a future competition. But it does mark a notable change from October 2019, when the service its sole-source contract award to Collins for the new ACES 5 ejection seat, declaring it was the “only company able to meet the Government’s minimum requirements for the NGES program.” 

Collins agreed to a $700 million deal in October 2020, covering ejection seats for all four fighters, plus the A-10. Collins, now a subsidiary of RTX, declined to comment on the Air Force’s search for options. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center could not immediately offer a comment. 

The need for a new ejection seat is driven by several factors, said Kevin Coyne, founder of “The Ejection Site” and a member of the SAFE Association, an organization focused on safety and life support systems. 

ACES II was first developed in the 1970s, Coyne said, and while upgrades and modifications have been incorporated since then, new technology has developed that can reduce injuries and help pilots and aircrew survive the hazards of being hurled from their aircraft in flight—events that can cause all sorts of traumatic injuries. Coyne said maintenance on ACES II seats can be difficult, requiring the removal of the aircraft canopy and extra equipment. 

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ryan Banke, 20th Component Maintenance Squadron egress technician, installs an ejection seat and canopy on an F-16 at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., in March 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Madeline Herzog

New seats like Collins’s ACES 5 and Martin-Baker’s US18E accommodate both lighter and heavier occupants, and have systems to protect crew members’ heads, necks, arms, and legs. Their designs reduce the need to remove canopies during maintenance. 

The Air Force has been eyeing an ACES II replacement for nearly a decade now. The service released a similar “sources sought synopsis” in 2016 for the NGES program and it updated its escape system safety criteria later that year, following up with another “sources sought” synopsis in 2019. 

The latest sources sought document has similar requirements for pilot weight, performance at “level flight conditions,” and probability of major injury. But it raises the minimum altitude required for low-level escapes when a fighter aircraft is rolling, pitching, or sinking. That eases the requirement for the manufacturer.

The Air Force received two responses to its 2019 synopsis, before determining that only Collins Aerospace was able to meet its requirements. Martin-Baker is the only other manufacturer to make an ejection seat for an Air Force plane—its seats are on the F-35, the T-6, and T-38. Its US18E seat has also been picked to go on the Block 70 F-16 fighters currently being built for foreign partners. 

Martin-Baker did not immediately respond to a query. 

A Martin-Baker US18E ejection seat is tested for the F-16. Image courtesy of Martin-Baker

Collins’s ACES 5 ejection has already been selected for the new T-7A Red Hawk trainer, and the requirements resulted in a delay during testing. Air Force officials said that tests showed the escape system exhibited unsafe deceleration at parachute opening, potentially causing pilots to suffer concussions as their visors tore off. At the time, industry sources told Air & Space Forces Magazine that USAF’s crash dummies were improperly instrumented, raising questions about the results. A reassessment of the data showed the seats were compliant, the sources said. 

ACES II also faced scrutiny in 2021 when an F-16 pilot’s ejection seat failed to fire during an emergency landing, leading to his death. A subsequent report faulted the seat’s Digital Recovery Sequencer, a component that was being replaced fleet wide at the time of the accident. 

Since then, however, several aviators have successfully ejected from aircraft with ACES II seats. An American F-16 pilot ejected over South Korea in May 2023, the 703rd air crew member to safely eject with the seat, Collins Aerospace asserted at the time. In January 2024, all four crew members on a B-1 bomber safely ejected at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., during an emergency landing. 

Martin-Baker seats have also had troubles. In July 2022, the Air Force temporarily grounded its F-35s when defective cartridges were found in the ejection seats. And in May, an instructor pilot died in a T-6 trainer when his ejection seat went off while the plane was on the ground.