NAWCWD Team Earns Honor For Life-Saving F/A-18 Capability

A Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division team received the Edward H. Heinemann Award for integrating the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (AGCAS) into the F/A-18 C/D Legacy Hornet. Twenty-two NAWCWD employees, along with mission partners across Naval Air Systems Command and other organizations, were recognized during the NAVAIR Commander's Awards Ceremony in Patuxent River, Maryland on Sep. 1. AGCAS alerts pilots when an aircraft is about to crash and, when needed, can briefly take control to pull the jet to safety. The system targets controlled flight into terrain, described as one of aviation’s deadliest hazards, and represented the Navy’s first automatic system designed to prevent that crash type. The team completed a 64-flight test program with 177 test points to prove readiness for fleet use, and the lessons may inform similar safety systems for other Navy aircraft.