LITEF LCR-100 AHRS for SUBARUs new helicopter

Freiburg, April 27, 2021 | LITEF, one of the leading companies in the development and manufacturing of navigation and sensor systems, will provide its Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) LCR-100 to SUBARU Corporation (SUBARU), a leading Japanese aerospace company, for the new SUBARU BELL 412EPX helicopter, the latest version of the 412 series.

SUBARU, in partnership with Bell, has developed the SUBARU BELL 412EPX which will be utilised for the Utility Helicopter-2 (UH-2) program as a replacement for the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force’s UH-1J fleet.

The Japanese Ministry of Defence plans to procure about 150 UH-2 over a 20-year period. The LCR-100 AHRS will be required for each helicopter. LCR-100 deliveries are set to begin in mid-2021.

The SUBARU BELL 412 EPX is a commercial variant of the 412-series and is available to buy for customers worldwide through BELL and SUBARU.

The Japan National Police Agency (JNPA) placed in 2019 the first order for a SUBARU BELL 412EPX.

Lutz Kampmann, Managing Director of LITEF, is excited about the contract: “LITEF is extremely pleased to welcome SUBARU as a new customer. We hope that our solution competence, our service portfolio as well as our product quality will meet SUBARU's expectations and we are looking forward to a long-term cooperation.”

Based on decades of experience with fibre optic gyroscopes and the development of sensors based on MEMS technology, LITEF established its LCR-100 Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) on the market successfully.

This AHRS based on FOG technology is characterised by light weight, low volume and low power loss, combined with extremely precise sensor data. Furthermore, this system delivers outstanding reliability. The high precision of the sensors used on the LCR-100 facilitates autonomous heading alignment (gyro compassing). This completely eliminates the need to use malfunction-prone magnetic sensors for heading alignment. The LCR-100 can be connected to an external GNSS receiver. In this case, the LCR-100 provides ’hybrid position solutions’ for navigation and flight control.

The LITEF LCR-100 phased out the previous LCR-92 and LCR-93 systems, with its better performance data and extended capabilities. As standard, the data is output in ARINC 429 format with the option of attitude and heading reference data being output using analogue interfaces (e.g. synchro interface).

Today, the LITEF LCR-100 is used worldwide in turboprops, business jets, IFR helicopters, regional aircraft and in military COTS applications. This product is not only popular with aircraft manufacturers and operators for new installations, but also for retrofits.