A lighter version of the Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is expected to be delivered in November. Wide scale rollout of the new HMDS to US Air Force fighter pilots will take place in 2017.

The People's Liberation Army Air Force has no HMDS comparable to the Gen III since its fifth generation fighter, the Chengdu J-20, is still under development. Pilots of the F-22 Raptor are expected to receive their own HMDS by 2020.

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Rockwell Collins, maker of the Gen III, claims this HMDS is the world's most advanced biocular helmet-mounted display system. The helmet's integrated head-up display is the first to provide pilots with all the critical information they need on the helmet's visor.

This capability ensures that every mission, day or night, is supported "with unsurpassed situational awareness, tactical capability and safety."

The Gen III helmet includes an improved night vision camera; improved liquid-crystal displays; automated alignment and software improvements. Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems LLC also developed the Gen 2 helmet F-35 pilots currently use.

The Gen III, also called the "magic helmet," provides all the information that pilots need to complete their missions in all weather, day or night. This data is projected on the helmet's visor. This also means the F-35 is devoid of the traditional Heads-up Display (HUD) that equips all other U.S. fighters.

The helmet visor projects digitally zoomed-in night vision from the fighter's electro-optical targeting system. Its icons depict threats and targets in the air and on the ground. The F-35's forward looking infrared sensor can project sensor video in a "picture-in-picture" against the ground and sky.

The F-35's Distributed Aperture System (DAS) made by Northrop Grumman streams real-time imagery from six infrared cameras mounted around the aircraft to the helmet. This allows pilots to "look through" the airframe to see an aircraft below them, at their rear and to their sides, hence the helmet's being referred to as a "magic helmet."

The new Gen III helmet uses lightweight materials and has detachable day and night visors. The result is a helmet weighing some 4.8 lbs, probably less. Other refinements mean this helmet can be used by pilots weighing under 136 lbs.

The HMDS controls the F-35's air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the AIM-9X Sidewinder and AIM-132 ASRAAM.

TagsGen III Helmet Mounted Display System, HMDS, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Rockwell Collins