Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? It’s ASTi Products on T-7A Red Hawk!

ASTi has a longstanding relationship with Boeing, providing support for over 15 projects, including the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. As a result of our success on these programs, Boeing approached ASTi to provide the aural cue and comms component for a new endeavor: the T-7A Red Hawk ground-based training system (GBTS).

The T-7A GBTS is an advanced jet trainer preparing future U.S. Air Force (USAF) fighter and bomber pilots for battle. These impressive systems feature high-fidelity crew stations with dynamic motion seats and 8k native projectors. Based on an open systems architecture of hardware and digital software, the trainers have the flexibility to grow with the USAF. The T-7A Red Hawk GBTS is a “game changer” and “arguably the most advanced [training system] in the world,” according to Chuck Dabundo, Vice President of Boeing’s T-7 programs.¹

ASTi is contributing not one, but multiple critical components to the T-7A Red Hawk training systems. Last year, our Telestra™ product supplied T-7A simulators with a variety of robust capabilities:

• Networked, simulated radio communications
• Instructor-trainee interaction over intercoms
• Environmental cueing effects (e.g., Level D aural cue)

Now our suite of Voisus® products provides remote radio control and integrated live-virtual-constructive (iLVC) Radio Bridge capabilities to 46 T-7A trainers across the U.S. Thanks to Voisus, actual T-7A pilots using live radios can communicate with GBTS trainees using simulated radios. Boeing also used the Voisus API to integrate Voisus’s comms capabilities directly into a custom instructor toolset. Voisus even supports ED-137 Radio-over-Ethernet protocol for direct network connection to live radios without audio analog distribution devices, associated cabling, or power supplies.

Whatever your application needs—aural cue, comms, radio bridging, remote radio control, or a flexible API for custom tools—we’ve got it covered. Check out ASTi Products to learn more about Telestra, Voisus, and our other solutions, or contact info@asti-usa.com.