The last of the Mohawks ... Is anyone interested in hearing about the survivors ?
My name is Guillermo Ferraris (40) and I am a Major in the Argentine Army - currently Company Commander / Aerial Collection Company/Combat Intelligence Dettachment (formerly the 601st Military Intelligence Aerial Surveillance Company) which clearly - and strongly - shows our Intel side of the picture. The OV-1s donīt belong to us, we have a sister unit - 601st Aerial Recon Squadron (Army Aviation) that owns and operates the aircrafts - and the pilots (aircraft maintenance personnel too). We (MI branch) own the sensors and the TOs (and sensor maintenance personnel too). We are almost co-located, and truly work very nicely together.
The aircraft in the picture above is the AE-027 *, configured for SLAR missions, with the upgraded APS-94F radar (RO-495U recorder was replaced by a MIL-Spec notebook computer and some special electronic boards). The picture was taken on October 15th, 2000.
Here is a picture of an overflight across Argentinaīs southern dessert areas (also known as Patagonia).
It is indeed a great aircraft. Iīm not myself a pilot, but I have accumulated quite a few hours on the right side seat (I was the designer and project manager for the radar upgrade program). We have been getting some pretty interesting results with the APS-94F radar images (both FTI & MTI).
For those SLAR enthusiasts, here are a couple of pictures on the new SLAR image system upgrade: the main computer screen that the TO uses to interface with the control system (which replaced the old and unwieldy film recording system - the RO-495/U recorder/processor/viewer) and the type of imagery that weīre getting. They look quite different, donīt they? We can select either grayscale or shades of green, and also the brightness scale is inverted (bright=strong returns). The TO also has some powerful software tools available to enhance his mission capabilities. By the way, the ADAS has also been replaced by a GPS system that annotates imagery in a file that goes directly to disk.
Iīd be delighted to get in touch with old TOs.
Office: gferraris@citefa.gov.ar
Home: gferraris@radar.com.ar
Also see Mohawks Over the Pampas
* Note: According to our Association records, AE-027 was originally an OV-1B before being upgraded to the D model #62-5865...
PS: Guillermo said any resemblance to Saddam is just an unfortunate physical coincidence... My thought is that anyone that loves Hawks can not possibly be confused with Saddam.
