Eight Embraer ERJ-145 surveillance platforms (designated R-99As and R-99Bs) have been ordered and delivered to Brazil, including five equipped with the Ericsson Microwave Systems Erieye early-warning radar. Under a partnership with Ericsson, Embraer has also signed export contracts for the ERJ-145 surveillance system with Greece and Mexico. The Greek programme also incorporates a more advanced mission system from Thales. Mexico, meanwhile, has ordered a maritime patrol variant.
Embraer considers the ERJ-145 as a potential candidate for airborne surveillance requirements in Australia and Singapore. The company is exploring additional roles for the ERJ-145, including special operations and suppression of enemy air defences.
Under the $1.4 billion Raytheon-led SIVAM Amazon surveillance and protection programme, the eight R-99As have completed 4,000 operational flight hours, and the system is to become fully operational by the end of the year after the ALX deployment.
Most details of the programme's operations are classified, but Embraer reports that fleet availability is above 90%. The R-99A provides a surveillance capability that includes airborne early warning, airspace management, electronic intelligence and sea surveillance. Using the Erieye, it can detect Lockheed Martin F-16-sized fighters at a range of 370km (200nm), says Anastacio Katsonos, the company's director of defence market strategy. The R-99B provides a ground surveillance role, and has a mission suite that includes synthetic-aperture radar with moving target indicator to track targets beneath the Amazon jungle canopy. Other R-99B sensors include a forward-looking infrared turret, communications intelligence, electronic intelligence, and a multi-spectral scanner. The R-99As and R-99Bs each need a crew of seven to nine operators.
In the absence of hard statistics, it is difficult to determine how the SIVAM programme is performing. The government's objective was to deploy a persistent surveillance system that can monitor both criminal drug trafficking activity and environmental conditions. As a side benefit, SIVAM also provides the Amazon region's only airspace management capability, which includes managing civilian flights across the region, which spans 52 million km2 (20 million miles2), or roughly an area the size of western Europe. Brazil estimates that the region has 2,000 illegal flights a day.
First flight of the R-99 fleet was in 1999, or two years after the first contract was signed. All eight aircraft were delivered in 2002-3. In recent weeks, Colombia has asked Brazil to share SIVAM-collected surveillance data in a joint effort to target drug traffickers in the largely unregulated border area of the Amazon between the countries.
Source: Flight International
