THE UK AND German subsidiaries of Italian-based Elettronica have launched a family of electronic-warfare (EW) test sets, which the companies say offer a unique flight-line-equipment validation capability.
The Elettronica approach differs, from traditional built-in-test equipment, in that it is external to the system under test and is used to evaluate the unit, as a whole rather than diagnosing faults, at electronic-component level.
Elettronica (UK) is offering three distinct test units. They are the Solent, for infrared (IR) jammers; the Hamble, for radar-warning receivers (RWR); and the Baringa missile-approach-warner (MAW) test set.
The Solent system has already been tested with the ALQ-144 and ALQ-157 IR jammers, while a Hamble-type system is likely to be offered for a forthcoming Royal Air Force requirement for a flight-line tester for use with the service's ARI.18223 RWRs, ARI.18241 radar-homing and warning receivers and the warning sub-system of the Zeus integrated EW suite.
The Baringa MAW tester, was developed by the Australian Defence Science & Technology Organisation, with Elettronica acquiring the rights to future development and manufacturing.
Elettronica's German-based arm is producing 6-18GHz ELT-805 and 10MHz-20GHz BO1-501 systems, which have similar technology to that of their UK counterparts. Some 100 ELT-805s, are already thought to have been supplied to an unidentified customer.
Source: Flight International