Eurofighter Typhoon swashplate AESA radar 개발소식...

 

유로파이터 타이푼에 장착될 예정인 AESA 레이더 개발 소식입니다. 향후 타이푼을 유럽외 제3국에 수출하고자 한다면

필히 개발, 장착되어야 할 품목인데요, 현재 Selex 사에서 개발한 swashplate type Galileo AESA 레이더에 대한 실험을

진행하고자 한다는 내용입니다.

 

Selex Galileo AESA 레이더는 스웨덴 사브사의 Gripen NG 에도 장착이 예정된 모델인데, Eurofighter Typhoon 에도 장착

성능시험을 시작할 예정이라 합니다.

 

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Drumming Up Interest

Trials of movable AESA array position it for both Typhoon and Gripen 

Aviation Week & Space Technology 11/23/2009

Authors : Douglas Barrie, Andy Nativi and Robert Wall

 

The results of a still mainly classified U.K. program are spurring the Defense Ministry and industry to pursue a novel design of active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon. The AESA design is already earmarked for the Saab Gripen NG.

 

A Selex Galileo prototype AESA for the Gripen NG demonstrator has been installed on the aircraft. The full design includes the company’s so-called swashplate architecture that allows the angled antenna face to be rotated. This addresses coverage and performance-degradation issues encountered in fixed-array AESA radars.

 

The swashplate design has already been test flown in the U.K. as part of a Defense Ministry research program. The work was likely undertaken as an element of the Advanced Radar Targeting System (ARTS) demonstrator project.

  

                                Saab Gripen NG 에 적용된 Selex Galileo swashplate AESA 

 

AESAs offer greater detection ranges - on the order of 50% - compared with traditional mechanically scanned arrays, the ability to interleave tasks, far greater reliability and reduced maintenance costs.

 

The ARTS program was led by Qinetiq, with Selex providing the AESA. The radar was integrated on a Tornado GR4A, with trials carried out in the U.K. and using ranges in the U.S.

 

Neither the Defense Ministry nor industry has been willing to discuss any detail of the ARTS program. It was originally intended to form the core of the Reforger upgrade package for the Tornado GR4A, but the project was shelved because of funding problems.

 

ARTS also was being used as a risk-reduction effort in developing an AESA for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Trials of the radar may have continued even after the Tornado upgrade was dropped.

 

Enzo Casolini, Eurofighter consortium chief, believes the swashplate configuration will be a feature of the Typhoon AESA, although a number of options are being considered. He says the consortium wants to field an active, electronically scanned radar and the Meteor rocket ramjet-powered air-to-air missile in 2015.

 

The AESA and Meteor are seen as critical elements of Eurofighter export campaigns. Consortium officials are trying to secure orders from several nations, including India and Japan, where the competition is sjpeg. In India, Typhoon is due for its flight trials in April, with further flight tests in Europe slated for the second quarter of 2010.

 

Industry officials believe developing and fielding a swashplate-based AESA for the Typhoon can be completed within 5-6 years. There is now pressure from some Typhoon partners - particularly the U.K. - to finally chart a road map for AESA integration. This, combined with export imperatives, creates a genuine sense of urgency to agree on a near-term strategy.

 

Part of the internal debate on which approach to adopt may be related to development timescale issues among the four partner nations - Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. There are suggestions that Germany may be advocating an approach based on the Captor-E program using a fixed array, arguing that development could be completed relatively quickly. Whether the partners can actually agree on a common path for a Typhoon AESA is therefore uncertain.

 

Discussing the benefits of the swashplate approach, Bob Mason, Selex Galileo’s executive vice president for marketing and sales, says fixed-array AESA technology suffers performance losses at wide-scan angles. “It’s just a fact of life,” he notes. Canting the antenna to address radar cross-section issues can exacerbate the performance dropoff.

 

One means of addressing this problem would be to use side arrays. Mason notes that a side array was planned for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, but so far none has not been fitted because of the associated expense. The swashplate design, he contends, addresses the same main issues at less cost.

 

The swashplate employs a “repositioner” driven by electric motors to negate this problem, along with providing other benefits. What still must determined is whether, and the extent to which, the reintroduction of moving components begins to erode the advantages in terms of mean time between failures of mechanically scanned and AESA radars.

 

Antenna movement is automated using software to optimize radar performance relative to the tasks.

 

In the air-to-air arena, the ability to move the angled array gives advantages in beyond-visual-range missile engagement, allowing the so-called F-pole to be maximized. This is the distance between the launch aircraft and the target at the time of missile impact.