Paul Lewis/MELBOURNE, FLORIDA
Northrop Grumman is recommending the Airbus Industrie A321 as its preferred Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) platform to compete for NATO's Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) requirement.
The company has settled on the mid-size A320 series after studying and ruling out business jets as being too small. This follows NATO's rejection of the Boeing 707-based E-8 Joint STARS and the UK's recent selection of the Bombardier Global Express, equipped with the Raytheon Airborne Stand-Off Radar.
"Business jets run out of space for getting all of NATO's subsystems on board and are limited to three operators. The mid-size aircraft has the payload for a larger crew-and the A321 is the best from a configuration standpoint," says Frank Dogaer, Northrop Grumman international programme director, AGS and battle management systems.
The A320 family was originally considered, and rejected, by Northrop Grumman as a NATO Joint STARS contender in 1996, primarily on cost grounds. Since then, the Alliance's decision against the 707, plus the availability of new electronically scanned array technology, has made use of the Airbus platform viable.
The formerly named Alliance Ground Surveillance concept was endorsed by the NATO Conference of National Armament Directors earlier this year. An AGS project definition office is due to be established this month to evaluate and select a system by 2002. Plans call for six aircraft with an initial operational capability by 2007.
Northrop Grumman's proposal is based on the US Air Force and Army's newly funded $1.2 billion Radar Technology Insertion Programme (RTIP) upgrade for its E-8 Joint STARS fleet. "If NATO starts in 2002, we'll already be three years into the RTIP programme," says Dogaer.
The NATO version would include a slightly shorter version of the 7m (24ft)-long two-dimensional electronically scanned array being developed for the E-8 to replace the APY-3 from 2006. The length of the forward lower fuselage-mounted X-band antenna means that its view is unobstructed by the engine and wing.
RTIP enhancements include for the first time simultaneous moving target indicator (MTI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) modes, along with "an order of magnitude improvement" in revisit rates (the speed at which the switch is made between the modes). Added new modes will include inverse SAR to produce imagery of moving vehicles and high resolution MTI to discriminate specific targets.
The USAF, in the meantime, is funding an interim improvement to its E-8 workstations and computers through the adoption of faster and more modern commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Development is due to be completed early next year and the new systems will be fitted to the eleventh Joint STARS onwards.
Northrop Grumman has completed five of the 14 modified aircraft ordered, while funding is being sought for a fifteenth E-8 Joint Stars.
• Raytheon has won a $25.9 million contract from the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center of Georgia, to provide contractor logistics support for Joint STARS aircraft. The deal runs for a year with a six-month option.
Source: Flight International
