Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Euroradar Caesar active electronically scanned array takes flight in Eurofighter Typhoon - Military & Aerospace ElectronicsEuroradar Caesar active electronically scanned array takes flight in Eurofighter Typhoon
May 14, 2007
Basildon, U.K., 14 May 2007. The Euroradar Caesar active electronically scanned array (AESA) variant of the Captor radar system has completed a flight test program in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. The flights were conducted by EADS from the Manching facility in Germany.
Yeah, it might be possible. Later you know, they will say they are abandoning this project. But their might be a different angle to this, this growth plan might mean a regular income for these guys...This should be the F18SH growth mock-up, that they will present at Aero India, showing optional techs and upgrades for the future:
Eurofighter_1 Typhoon completes 100,000 flying hours .
@Sancho
BUt you told me previously that aesa is already made and you even posted an article....
Radar revolution: the arrival of gallium nitride components opens up new applications for radars, including jamming and telecomm
... In this way, explains Thales Airborne Systems technical director Pierre Fossier, it should be possible to launch the first system applications in 2010. In France, one of the leading candidates for the new technology is the offensive jammer, a capacity that the French Air Force has had its eyes on for several years, and which has already given rise to the Carbone airborne demonstrator. The performance of the system attracted a lot of attention at NATO's Mace X electronic warfare exercise in the year 2000.
The DGA procurement branch of the French MoD is continuing to provide limited funding for exploratory work by Thales while awaiting for national budgets to kick in to complete development. GaN would allow for a reduction in the size of the jammer, potentially clearing the way for integration into a combat aircraft...
... Rafale lead
As far as Europe's combat aircraft programmes are concerned, the Rafale seems to have established a lead over Typhoon and Gripen in the race to integrate an active array antenna. This is primarily because--unlike its competitors--the transition to active-array technology on the Rafale's electronically scanned RBE2 was planned from the outset, avoiding the need for the more extensive (and expensive) modifications required on the mechanical antennas of the Typhoon and Gripen. The increase in range that the new technology will bring is deemed essential if the aircraft is to fully exploit the potential of the future ramjet-powered Meteor missile, due to enter service in the early years of the next decade. Without it, pilots will rely on target designation from another platform to strike targets at the limits of the Meteor envelope...
... According to Thales, the RBE2 AA will offer 50% greater range than the current RBE2 and a huge increase in reliability--major overhaul every 7-10 years, compared with a current TWT service life of around 100 hours. It will also be possible to generate SAR images in air-to-ground mode with 1 m resolution or better, and to detect at long range low-reflection airborne targets, including stealthy UAVs and UCAVs.
No state funding has yet been made available to fund the active-array transition for Typhoon and Gripen. Euroradar (Selex SAS/EADS/Galileo Avionica/Indra) launched its own Caesar demonstrator programme for Typhoon in 2003. The demonstrator made its first flight on a BAC 1-11 testbed in February 2006. Caesar combines the back end from the existing Captor with an antenna partially featuring active GaAs modules from UMS (Germany) and Filtronic (UK). Captor air-to-air modes have been partially adapted to the new antenna. Caesar was flight tested on a Typhoon development aircraft (DA5) in May.
Industry is hopeful of an order as part of the Tranche 3 batch of Eurofighters, currently due to be ordered in 2009 for delivery starting in 2012. According to industry officials, the operating cost gains due to improved reliability would compensate for the extra cost due to development of the new antenna...
...On the other hand, if the power of GaN is used to trim the number of modules, this means that the size of the antenna--and the nose section of the aircraft--can be significantly reduced, with an obvious payoff in terms of aerodynamics and stealth. The aircraft's stealth characteristics would be further improved by the fact that, by sharing the same antenna for radar, jamming and communications functions, there would be a reduction in the number of reflectors for enemy radars.
Another consequence of the smaller antenna is on increase in beam width. The tradeoff is a slight loss of resolution, but this is not a major problem in air-to-air situations where missiles have their own active seekers that can compensate for shortcomings in target designation. In air-to-ground modes, however, a wider beam enables a given area to be covered more quickly to establish cartography. Also, in jamming mode, the aiming accuracy in relation to a hostile transmitter would be less demanding.
I think we should also put some money in this and ask for JV with France in this field as it will be very helpful in our future projects like AMCA and FGFA...So with the GaN modules, the RBE 2 AESA could increase the capabilities even more, without the smaller size nose beeing a problem. Moreover, these modules will increase the capabilities of SPECTRA even further!
I think we should also put some money in this and ask for JV with France in this field as it will be very helpful in our future projects like AMCA and FGFA...
IF EF AESA will not be ready before 2015 and its in technical evaluation stage, what is the use to go after them?
Can anybody tell, apart from F-18, which competitor will get AESA integrated and supply ASAP to India?
Brazil mudslides delay Gripen fighter decision
I am sure Typhoon will win but the conditions stated above is alarming...According to me rafale should win, if the above development is true.EF - Fifth, German Luftwaffe T2 entered the trials, without AESA radar, without IRST, without full EWS, or A2G capabilities. Weapon trials was done in the UK, by british EFs and it's likely that they showed the the CEASAR AESA radar tech demonstrator as well. But till the partner countries get to a final decision about fundings and capabilities of the T3 upgrade, all the proposed techs and weapons are only theoretical.
New Recruit
The French Fighter Jet That Nobody Wants
The Rafale has cost $53 billion and is the key to France's defense economy, but it's not selling abroad
By Carol Matlack
The Rafale fighter, made by France's Dassault Aviation, is loaded with high-tech avionics, radar, and targeting systems. Now all it needs are customers. France has been peddling the supersonic jet since 2000 and hasn't sold a single one. In the latest setback, Brazil said on Jan. 17 that it would reopen bidding for a fighter contract worth up to $7 billiona deal France had thought it was close to sealing last year. Neither Dassault nor the French Defense Ministry would comment on Brazil's decision.
The Rafale's plight signals the end of an era for France. With their Mirage fighter program, developed in the 1950s, the French were able to bolster their national defense, promote new technologies, and provide well-paying jobswhile recouping much of the cost by exporting hundreds of jets worldwide. Hoping to duplicate that model, the French government has spent some $53 billion on the Rafale, more than the country's $40 billion annual defense budget. But deal after deal has fallen through, with prospective buyers South Korea, Singapore, and Morocco choosing Boeing's (BA) F-15 and Lockheed Martin's (LMT) F-16 over the Rafale.
Midsize suppliers such as France are being outgunned by bigger competitors. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, for example, is being developed by a U.S.-led consortium of nine countries that plan to buy more than 2,500 of the planes. That will ensure plenty of revenue from production and upgrades. Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain have similarly joined forces to produce the new Eurofighter jet. "Nationally driven, nationally financed and controlled production of the most advanced weapons systems is now the exclusive purview of the U.S. and Russia, and in the future, China as well," says Mark Bromley, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank.
Changing global politics has worked against France, too. During the Cold War, France successfully marketed the Mirage as an alternative to U.S. and Soviet planes. Other customers, such as the United Arab Emirates, bought French planes after the U.S. balked at providing high-tech weaponry. Now, though, the U.S. is eagerly seeking sales in the Gulf states. Many foreign governments, in turn, see arms deals as a way to forge closer defense ties with the U.S., says Loïc Tribot La Spière, an analyst at the Center for Studies and Prospective Strategy, a Paris think tank. "The sentiment is, 'We buy American because it assures security,' " he says.
The 93 Rafales produced by Dassault so far have gone to the French armed forces. To sustain production, the government has agreed to spend $1.1 billion on more Rafales over three years, even as it tries to pare budget deficits.
Finding customers will only get harder. As the Joint Strike Fighter enters service, U.S. manufacturers are set to increase their share of the $16 billion-a-year fighter aircraft market over the next decade from nearly 58 percent to more than 67 percent, according to forecasts by the Virginia-based Teal Group aerospace consultancy. Eurofighter and Russian manufacturers will get most of the rest, Teal predicts.
The longer the Rafale order book stays empty, the harder it will be to sell the plane, Teal analyst Richard Aboulafia says. "Customers like to see a home government that is determined to keep spending on buying and upgrading the aircraft" with the latest technology. Instead, he says, the Rafale is on budgetary life support. "That's the last thing you want customers to see."
The bottom line: France's decision to go it alone on its fighter program has cost the country $53 billion, with no export sales to offset the price.
Matlack is a Paris correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Source:The French Fighter Jet That Nobody Wants - BusinessWeek
New Recruit
IF EF AESA will not be ready before 2015 and its in technical evaluation stage, what is the use to go after them?
Can anybody tell, apart from F-18, which competitor will get AESA integrated and supply ASAP to India?