Supporting Soldier Safety with Precision Energetics Systems

A Precision Story from PacSci EMC, a Ralliant Company

The training mission began routinely enough.

U.S. Navy fighter pilot Brandon Michaelis will never forget the day he experienced a mid-flight collision. Traveling at a combined speed of nearly 800mph, Brandon made the split-second decision to deploy the aircraft’s emergency exit system. 350 milliseconds later he was safely parachuting to the ground. Watch the video above to hear his full recount of that day, and how PacSci EMC’s precision engineering helped him return home safely.  

Learn More: How PacSci EMC is Elevating Soldier Safety in MV-75 Helicopters

When a pilot needs to escape a failing aircraft, there's no time to wait. PacSci EMC, a Ralliant company, engineered an emergency egress system for the U.S. Army's new MV-75 helicopters that clears an exit path in three milliseconds — with or without power to the aircraft. 

As part of the Future Vertical Lift program, the U.S. Army is replacing its current aging helicopter fleet with a next-generation family of advanced, high-speed, and long-range vertical lift platforms. The U.S. Army has chosen an aircraft from PacSci EMC’s client, a leading helicopter manufacturer, as the design series for its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, now designated the “MV-75.” The manufacturer is expected to produce these helicopters at scale for the U.S. Army over the coming decades. 

The Challenge

When designing and manufacturing a new aircraft fleet, nothing matters more than soldier safety. Egress systems — the mechanisms that allow pilots and crew to exit the aircraft in an emergency — are critical. They must work on command, every time, in the most demanding environments. Lives depend on it. 

The Need for Precision

The aircraft manufacturer and the U.S. Army needed a proven solution — one with a long track record of reliability in zero-failure environments. Soldier lives depended on getting it right. The manufacturer brought in PacSci EMC, a recognized leader in precision energetics with deep expertise across aerospace and defense programs, to take egress reliability to a new level. PacSci EMC possessed the precision-based expertise and experience needed to match the manufacturer and the U.S. Army’s mission-critical needs.    

The Breakthrough

PacSci EMC’s system is designed to work even with a complete loss of power — an important distinction from legacy systems that require manual force to open the egress path. PacSci EMC's solution clears the path entirely. From the moment a crew member pulls the handle, up to four windows are removed in a precisely sequenced series of events. Total time elapsed: three milliseconds.

PacSci EMC is working closely with the aircraft manufacturer and the U.S. Army as an embedded partner to implement these systems into the MV-75 helicopters according to necessary specifications. The company is also subjecting the systems to rigorous and extreme environmental testing to ensure the system is suitable for eventual use.   

Precision for What Matters

PacSci EMC's emergency egress systems have set the industry standard for reliability — and the numbers tell the story. Across emergency egress applications, the technology is estimated to have saved more than 1,500 lives through its embedded partnership with the manufacturer and the U.S. Army, PacSci EMC continues to deliver on its most important mission: bringing soldiers home safely. 

Ralliant powers breakthrough innovation through precision. Our companies design and deliver instruments, sensors, and safety systems for the most demanding applications in critical industries including utilities, aerospace, defense, electronics, and industrial manufacturing. We engineer accuracy where the stakes are highest, reliability where failure isn’t an option, and innovation where progress depends on getting it right, every time.   

The People Powering Our Precision

To the teams at PacSci EMC, precision is everything. Meet the people powering our precision and learn how they build products that perform on command — exactly as designed, every single time. Through teamwork, rigorous verification, and a culture of continuous improvement, PacSci EMC delivers precision customers trust — because it has to work, every time.