Air combat maneuvering instrumentation

Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) systems record an aircraft's in-flight data. They are often used by the military for aerial combat training and analysis.

ACMI systems usually include 4 major subsystems.

Subsystems

 * Control and Computation
 * The Control and Computation Subsystem (CCS) is usually a rack-mounted personal computer running applications that calculate Time-Space-Position-Information (TSPI).


 * Transmission Instrumentation
 * The Transmission Instrumentation Subsystem (TIS) is firmware running at or near a communications tower on the range the aircraft are flying around. The TIS will have 1-9 remote interrogators (remotes) scattered throughout the range. One of these remotes is at the TIS, and is referred to as the "remote at Master". Each remote interrogates an AIS pod (see below) loaded on each aircraft flying on range, and receives the response and relays it to the TIS.


 * Airborne Instrumentation
 * Antiquated ACMI systems triangulated each pod's position and relayed that TSPI back to the CCS. Modern ACMI systems no longer triangulate; instead, a GPS unit is installed in each Airborne Instrumentation Subsystem (AIS) pod to calculate its own position, thereby relieving the CCS of the triangulation algorithm. The CCS now gets a complete TSPI message from the AIS pod via the TIS, and forwards this data to a display system.


 * Advanced Display and Debriefing or Individual Combat Aircrew Display
 * Advanced Display and Debriefing Subsystems (ADDS) are quickly vanishing and being replaced by Individual Combat Aircrew Display Systems (ICADS) because the ICADS software can run on any compatible personal computer. ICADS is the display software that receives data from the CCS and displays it in a three-dimensional graphical user interface.