MPCD

The Multi-Purpose Color Display (MPCD) currently provides two pages: SIT, the situational awareness display, and AA, the air-to-air weapons page. SIT is displayed by default.

SIT brings together mission information, datalink reports, and tracks acquired by your radar. AA shows the aircraft's stores, selected station, gun ammunition, and countermeasure quantities.

Page index

1 SIT display and symbols2 Mission information and display controls3 Cursor control and display modes4 Friendly aircraft and Bullseye5 Using SIT with VSD6 AA weapons page

Click any display screenshot to open the original-resolution image. Numbered explanations refer to the markings on each image.

SIT display and symbols

SIT presents a top-down view of the tactical situation, including aircraft, flight-plan waypoints, geofences, and range references.

SIT overview. In this example, the acquisition gate follows the VSD cursor.

Numbered symbols

1 Zulu time2 Compass3 Datalink information4 Half-range ring5 Weapon information6 Geofence7 Display range8 Cursor coordinates from ownship9 SAM engagement zone10 Flight-plan waypoints11 Acquisition gate12 Countermeasure quantities13 Cursor coordinates from Bullseye

1. Zulu time

The upper-left clock shows Zulu time (UTC). Here, 23:00:51Z means 23:00:51 Zulu.

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2. Compass

The compass provides a bearing reference around ownship. Use its direction markings to read target bearings.

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3. Datalink information

The red symbols show a hostile flight reported through the datalink. Their dashed outlines indicate datalink information. The stages from a datalink report to a correlated radar track are illustrated in Using SIT with VSD.

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4. Half-range ring

The inner white ring marks half the display range shown in item 7. With 80 selected in this centered view, the ring represents 40 nautical miles from ownship.

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5. Weapon information

The lower-left readout summarizes weapon information. The AA page provides the corresponding station-by-station view of the loadout.

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6. Geofence

The dashed polygon is a geofence: an area defined in the mission. These boundaries help relate the tactical situation to areas set up in the Tac Editor.

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7. Display range

In this centered view, the upper-right 80 is the distance from ownship to the top of the compass, in nautical miles. In Decenter mode, ownship moves lower on the screen; the range reference for that view is explained below.

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8. Cursor coordinates from ownship

The cyan readout gives the cursor's bearing and range from ownship. 092-22 places the cursor on bearing 092°, 22 nautical miles from your aircraft. This readout follows the acquisition gate marked 11.

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9. SAM engagement zone

The red circles show the engagement ranges of surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. These zones are also a type of geofence. The example circles are labeled MEZ, which stands for Missile Engagement Zone.

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10. Flight-plan waypoints

The connected yellow waypoint symbols show the waypoint sequence in your flight's flight plan.

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11. Acquisition gate

The two cyan vertical bars form the cursor, or target acquisition gate. Dashed bars mean that the SIT gate is following the VSD cursor. When you give cursor control to SIT, the bars become solid and TDC movement controls the SIT gate directly. See Cursor control and display modes.

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12. Countermeasure quantities

The green C 120 and F 60 readouts indicate 120 chaff and 60 flares remaining.

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13. Cursor coordinates from Bullseye

The yellow readout gives the cursor's bearing and range from Bullseye, the common reference point. 121-30 places the cursor on bearing 121°, 30 nautical miles from Bullseye. The cyan upper-right readout instead uses ownship as its reference.

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Mission information and display controls

Information from the Tac Editor

Much of the information displayed on SIT comes from the content you configure in the mission editor. The flight-plan waypoint sequence and geofences in the example can be compared directly with the mission setup below.

Configure missions according to your device's capabilities. Adding more units consumes more computing resources and memory.

The mission setup supplies the context for the SIT display.

For mission setup, see Tac Editor.

Choosing what SIT displays

Open the Touch UI Function Panel and select MAIN. The SIT row controls the displayed information and whether its range follows VSD.

No.	Control	Function
1	WP	Show or hide flight-plan waypoints.
2	DLK	Show or hide datalink information.
3	AUTO RANGE	Control whether SIT display range follows changes to VSD display range.
4	GEO FENCE	Show or hide geofences.

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Cursor control and display modes

Give cursor control to SIT

With the TDC assigned to VSD, move the Castle Switch UP to make SIT the active display (SOI). TDC movement now controls only the SIT acquisition gate, whose two bars become solid.

Castle UP switches cursor control between VSD and SIT. When the gate follows VSD again, it is drawn with dashed bars.

The Touch UI controls shown alongside are the Castle Switch and Cursor (TDC).

Castle Switch

Cursor / TDC

The left, right, and down actions below apply while SIT has cursor control.

Castle direction	SIT mode	Purpose
Right	Decenter	Move ownship lower on the display to leave more space ahead.
Left	EXP	Expand a local area at a 10 NM scale; use the cursor to control the view offset.
Down	Flight	Use a fixed 5 NM scale to inspect your flight's situation.

Decenter mode

Move Castle RIGHT with SIT in control to enter Decenter mode. Ownship moves toward the lower part of the display, leaving more room in the upper part of SIT to show the situation ahead.

1: solid acquisition gate under SIT control. 2: ownship.

The upper-right 120 represents 120 nautical miles from ownship to the top of the large circle in this view.

EXP mode

Move Castle LEFT with SIT in control to enter EXP mode. It focuses on an area at a 10 nautical mile scale, indicated by E10 in the upper-right corner. Use the cursor to control the view's offset, enlarging the area you want to inspect.

EXP enlarges a small area so individual aircraft and nearby geofences are easier to distinguish.

Flight mode

Move Castle DOWN with SIT in control to enter Flight mode. This mode uses a fixed 5 nautical mile scale, shown as F5, to inspect the positions and altitudes of aircraft in your own flight.

Flight mode provides a close view of your flight's situation.

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Friendly aircraft and Bullseye

SIT distinguishes aircraft in your own flight from other aircraft in the same mission Package. The example below also shows how to read the cursor's position from Bullseye.

No.	Symbol	Meaning
1	Green Package aircraft	Another aircraft in the same Package, here an airborne early warning aircraft. The center dot means ownship is receiving its datalink contribution. The 15 below it indicates an altitude of 15,000 feet.
2	Yellow Bullseye	The common reference point. The yellow lower-right 037-12 places the cursor on bearing 037°, 12 nautical miles from Bullseye.
3	Cyan wingmen	The other three aircraft in your flight. The numbers inside the symbols are their flight numbers: 2, 3, and 4; the flight lead is number 1. Numbers below the symbols give altitude in thousands of feet.
4	Cyan ownship symbol	Your aircraft's position on SIT.

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Using SIT with VSD

A useful workflow is to use datalink information on SIT to locate the area of interest, then direct radar search on VSD to that position and acquire the targets. The screenshots below show the progression from datalink reports to local radar tracks and correlated tracks.

1. Search the area indicated by datalink

Use the reported target positions on SIT to guide radar search on VSD. The cyan sector on the left-hand SIT represents the radar's search azimuth and range. Use it to compare the radar search area with the reported positions, and check VSD's altitude coverage for the targets' altitude.

SIT on the left provides tactical context; VSD on the right shows radar search information.

For antenna elevation, search coverage, and acquisition-gate operation, see Radar and VSD: LRS.

2. Read locally acquired tracks

Once the radar establishes tracks, SIT displays them as white solid-outline squares in this example. The solid outline indicates a track obtained by your own radar; white indicates unknown identity. The red dashed datalink symbols remain visible behind the local tracks at this stage.

1: highlighted weapon readout. 2: local tracks on SIT. 3: corresponding radar tracks on VSD.

3. Recognize correlated tracks and PDT

After some time, the track files obtained by your radar and those received through datalink are associated and merged into a single track. SIT then shows a filled target symbol. In this example, the correlated hostile aircraft are red.

The blue dashed line marked 1 points to the PDT (Primary Designated Target).

The blue dashed line identifies the direction to the Primary Designated Target.

4. Use EXP to inspect the target flight

Switch SIT to EXP mode to examine the individual aircraft within the target flight. Enlarging the area separates the symbols and makes the flight's distribution and altitude readouts easier to inspect alongside VSD.

1: target-flight detail on SIT in EXP mode. 2: the corresponding tracks on VSD.

Appearance in these examples	Meaning
Dashed target outline	Datalink report.
Solid target outline	Track obtained by ownship's radar.
White target	Unknown identity.
Filled target symbol	Local and datalink tracks have been correlated.
Blue dashed line	Direction to PDT.

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AA weapons page

Open AA

With TDC control assigned to VSD, move Castle RIGHT to switch MPCD from SIT to the AA air-to-air weapons page. Castle LEFT in the same control context returns to SIT.

The Castle action depends on which display has cursor control: RIGHT opens AA when VSD is in control, and selects Decenter when SIT is in control.

Read the loadout

AA shows the stores arranged around an aircraft outline, together with gun ammunition and countermeasure quantities.

The image uses 3 twice: left-image 3 marks gun ammunition; right-image 3 marks countermeasure quantities.

Callout	Readout	Meaning
1, left image	PYLON	An empty pylon with no store mounted.
2, left image	FUEL	A station carrying an external fuel tank.
3, left image	950	Gun ammunition remaining: 950 rounds in this example.
3, right image	CHF 120, FLR 60	Countermeasures remaining: 120 chaff and 60 flares.
4, right image	Highlighted AMRM / 120B	The selected station, shown with a green highlight and a white box around the weapon designation.

Compare with aircraft setup

The LOADOUT configuration below corresponds to the AA examples above. Compare the store types and ammunition quantities to see how the setup is represented on MPCD.

LOADOUT configuration	Corresponding AA display
9M at stations 8A and 2A	Two SRM / 9M entries.
120B at stations 7 and 3	Two AMRM / 120B entries.
7M at stations 6 and 4	Two MRM / 7M entries.
Tank at station 5	Center FUEL entry.
Gun 950, Chaff 120, Flare 60	Gun and countermeasure quantities on AA.

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