美 Raytheon RACR AESA, F/A-18 Hornet 에 장착 추진

 

중동 UAE 에서 개최되고 있는 Dubai Airshow 2011 관련 소식으로, 美 Raytheon 社가 개발한 RACR (Raytheon Advanced

Combat Radar) AESA 레이더를 현재 美 해군과 해병대 그리고 스페인, 캐나다, 호주 등이 각각 운용 중인 F/A-18 Hornet 에

장착을 추진 중이라는 내용 입니다.

 

RACR 는 美 Reytheon 社가, 美 공군 F-16 Fighting Falcon 레이더 성능개량 사업에 참여할 목적으로 기존 F/A-18E/F Super

Hornet 에 장착되고 있는 AN/APG-79 AESA 를 기반으로 개발된 AESA 레이더로, 우리 대한민국 공군의 KF-16 전투기 성능

개량 사업에도 제안될 것으로 알려지고 있습니다.

 

이런 가운데, 아래 Shephard online 기사에 의하면, 美 해군 F/A-18 Hornet 은 물론 해외 운용국가들과 RACR AESA 장착 및

수출 협상을 진행하고 있다는 소식 입니다.

 

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Dubai Airshow 2011: AESA radars to transform performance of 'legacy' Hornets

15 November 2011

by Tony Osborne in Dubai, UAE

© 2011 Copyright. Shephard Group Limited. All rights reserved.

As Raytheon delivers its 300th active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system, the company is turning its attention to retrofitting world's fleets of 'legacy' F/A-18 Hornets with the technology.

 

At the Dubai Airshow, the company is touting its RACR AESA radar system, which can be potentially retrofitted into the hundreds of F/A-18 A/B/C/D Hornet that serve not only with the United States Navy, but the air arms of nations such as Spain, Switzerland, Canada and Finland.

 

The company has already garnered some 300,000 hours of flight operations with AESA radars since the first Raytheon AESA radars were fitted to Alaska-based F-15 Eagles and more recently with the APG-79 radar fitted to the latest configuration of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet operated by the US Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force.

 

The company has developed and successfully flown its Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar (RACR) radar for the F-16 and is following up the F-16 programme with an AESA designed to fit into the smaller nose of the older Hornet. The company has fitted the F/A-18 RACR into the Hornet's nose but an aircraft fitted with the radar is yet to take to the skies.

 

'The RACR AESA for the legacy Hornet has a 90% commonality with the APG-79 radar fitted to the Super Hornet,' said Larry Seeley in charge of International Capture on the APG-79 programme.

 

Seeley pointed out that the lack of moving parts in the AESA radar makes it significantly more reliable than mechanically scanned arrays leading to higher mean time between failure (MTBF) rates with some components in the radar system actually having a longer life than the aircraft itself.

 

Seeley said that the installation of an AESA radar can see a return on investment in five to seven years based on the cost of radar maintenance alone.

 

The AESA radar fits into the same space as the old system, can be installed in a few hours and use the same cooling systems; as a result, the RACR radars require no modifications to the aircraft itself. The AESA fitted to a 'legacy' Hornet would double the radar range produced by the mechanically scanned array (MSA) currently in use and boost situational awareness for the crews who can scan air-to-air and air-to-ground targets at the same time.

 

At the Dubai International Air Chiefs conference held on the eve of the airshow, Air Marshal Charles Brown, Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force, concluded that introduction of AESA radars on 4th generation fighter aircraft immediately turned these aircraft into 4.5 generation aircraft and helped to close the gap between 4th generation aircraft and 5th generation types such as the F-35 and the F-22.

 

Currently, two unnamed nations are exploring the potential of upgrading their early Hornet models with an AESA radar while South Korea and Taiwan also also examining the technology to update their large fleets of F-16s.

 

 

  ⓒ US Navy

 

  ⓒ US Navy

 

  ⓒ US Navy

 

  ⓒ Australian Gov. DoD