Flight Deck Communications

M/A COM provides a Flight Deck Module to support the communication requirements on the flight deck of large deck carriers and amphibious ships. The Flight Deck Module meets the special five (5) level pre-emption needs of the flight deck. A fundamental requirement for the flight deck module operation is to arrange the flight deck talk group structure as an agency that provides a three level talk group structure. The agency is called "5MC". All 5MC calls will be clear voice agency calls and will pre-empt any active calls (fleet or sub-fleet) within the agency. This agency will have four fleets, which correspond to the four conventional channels found in the SRC-47. All calls made by the Air-Boss, Mini-Boss, Aircraft Handler, and CAG will be fleet calls and will pre-empt all sub-fleet calls. Special processing circuits are used to add the required levels of pre-emption within the fleet structure. Flight Deck personnel will make calls at the Sub-fleet or group level and there will be one Sub-fleet for each fleet in the agency. Fleets will be named as follows:

• A will be Aircraft Handler
• B will be CAG One
• C will be CAG Two
• D will be Hangar Bay

The Air Boss, Mini Air Boss, CAG and Handler will each have a Fleet Select Box that includes selectable transmit and receive functions for each of the fleets. The Fleet Select Box is shown below.

5MC AGENCY CALL

The 5MC interface is accomplished through an interface connection at the central 5MC amplifier site. This interface brings both the PTT signal and the audio to the 5MC Interface box. The 5MC interface unit includes a hardwired Fixed Command unit with an interface unit that will condition and delay the audio and PTT command. The unit may be installed in a convenient location with the main 5MC amplifiers. The 5MC module is shown below.

The 5MC system is used primarily to support flight deck operations. The 5MC system is an audio announcing system that uses high-powered audio speakers. Access to the system is gained through a standard handset or headset with a PTT switch. The Air Boss, Mini-Boss and Aircraft Handler each have a 5MC interface. There is also a requirement for the 5MC calls to preempt in radio calls in progress. The pre-emption must knock down the ongoing call and establish an audio path to all the radios in less than one second. In order to support this requirement, M/A COM uses the three level talk group architecture previously described.