Planning the Mission
FalconView supports CADRG and CIB imagery to provide the mission
planner with up-to-date charts to plan his missions. Clicking
on the In and Out buttons on FalconView's menubar
allows you to zoom in and out to different levels of imagery.
(If you have a Microsoft Intellimouse, scrolling the roller ball
has the same effect.) Here, we've stepped back to get a good view
of the entire JSOW flight from release point to target. You'll
recognize the Launch Acceptability Region (LAR) around the release
point and the use of a circle for the release point and a triangle
for the target. What you may not recognize is the circle around
the target. This circle represents the min-range LAR, the distance
from the target within which the missile cannot turn. We call
this the approach circle.
Every JSOW planner (and mission planner, in general) that we
have spoken to has told us that he doesn't want to have to see
weather products while planning his mission. Instead, he wants
to see the effects of weather on the mission.
In order to meet this requirement, we have colored the flight
path and approach circle based on METOC data. We've used the standard
stoplight (red/yellow/green) scheme to represent danger, possible
danger, and safety, respectively. Along the flight path, yellow
and red represent high winds. On the approach circle, yellow and
red represent a high tailwind near the target if approaching from
that arc of the circle. If there is not enough data available
to make an assessment at any point on the route, we color that
part of the route white.
To see why the route was colored as it was, click the left
mouse button on the section of the route in question. For example,
below we've clicked on a section of the route that is yellow.
The menu that pops up shows all available METOC data for that
point and provides buttons for graphical route editing. Notice
that the missile's Altitude is given as 19,173 FT, and
that the winds at 20,000 FT are about 23 KTS. This section of
the route was colored yellow because we have the flight-level
wind Preferences set to color yellow
any wind above 20 KTS. See Popup Menu
for more details.
Wagner Home | METPLAN
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For more information contact James
Eanes at our Hampton, Virginia Office.
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