Americans working on the Tactical Organic Sensing System (TOSS) project do get grief about its name from their British colleagues, "but the name's acquired a life of its own," says one Boeing executive.

TOSS is a Bell/Boeing V-22 equipped with a palletized version of the Royal Navy/Thales Cerberus airborne radar system. In RN service, the Cerberus - which comprises the Searchwater radar and operator stations - is fitted to the Sea King ASaC7 helicopter. Although it resembles the original Sea King AEW system, developed in a panic reaction after the loss of two ships to Exocet missiles in the 1982 Falklands war, the Cerberus system is new, the last of 13 aircraft having been delivered early this year, and has AEW and overland modes and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse SAR capability.

Boeing is proposing a three year joint  capability technology demonstration (JCTD) with extensive support from the RN - which needs a replacement platform for the Sea King and could adapt the rear-ramp configuration to the Merlin helicopter. The kit requires very minor modifications to the V-22 - the addition of CV-22-type sponson tanks, power connectors, intercom and a Link 16 antenna - and the radar needs a rigid radome (the Sea King radome is inflatable.)

Photo:  Bill Sweetman