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Eurofighter: AESA decision by February
November 18th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Andrew Chuter
Industry hopes to deliver proposals to the Typhoon partner nations to fit an active electronically scanned radar on the fighter by the end of the year, according to Eurofighter chief executive Enzo Casolini. A decision by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain on whether to proceed could come by February, he said.
Some industry executives, though, wonder whether funding constraints among the partner nations might make that approval date slip to the right.
Speaking at the show, Casolini said he believed that adopting the new radar technology and the new MBDA Meteor ram-jet missile by 2015 is a fundamental requirement for current users and the aircraft’s future export prospects.
Eurofighter is already embroiled in key export campaigns in India and Japan, where an AESA radar capability is essential.
Saudi Arabia, Typhoon’s biggest export customer to date, would fall in behind what the British Royal Air Force does, he said.
The British have been the strongest supporters of AESA technology for Typhoon for operational and export reasons, followed by Germany.
The Eurofighter boss said he was confident industry could deliver an “affordable and technically feasible” proposal to the partner nations.
A study involving industry and the partner nations has focused on two options. One is converting the current mechanically scanned Captor radar to electronic scan known as Captor-E.
Casolini said his perception is that a new Selex Galileo radar which uses novel swashplate technology will be adopted.
A Selex radar using the same technology has been selected by Saab for the Gripen NG fighter development being offered in Brazilian and Indian fighter competitions.
Swashplate technology allows the radar to reposition, giving it a wider scan than current AESA systems offered by U.S. manufacturers.
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