Andrzej Jeziorski/ MOLNDAL
Ericsson Microwave Systems is planning to have a flying demonstrator of its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar operational in 1999.
The company says that it is keen to find partners to continue the project, but will start to build the demonstrator on its own if necessary. Ericsson says that it is talking to European and US radar manufacturers about a potential partnership - companies understood to be in talks on the programme include the European joint venture GEC Thomson Dasa Airborne Radar and Hughes and Northrop Grumman of the USA.
According to Ericsson airborne-radar programmes marketing manager Bo Wikström, a decision on the radar partnership will be made "within a year".
The AESA project is now in its second phase, with completion of the development of a prototype transmitter/receiver (T/R) module, which is now about 250mm long. The concept for the entire radar is to have an array of 1,200-1,300 such modules, with a combination of electronic scanning across an arc of plus or minus 50-60 degrees, and mechanical scanning in azimuth, also to plus or minus 50-60 degrees off-centre.
This will give the pilot the ability to look "over his shoulder", by being able to point the radar to his four o'clock position. While Wikström concedes that the mechanical scanning will sacrifice some of the weight saving expected from a pure electronically scanned radar, he says that the final unit should weigh about 160kg.
The AESA programme has been funded since 1994 by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration. Ericsson says that it expects a radar of this type to be ready for operational use around 2010, and the system could be included in a future mid-life upgrade of the Saab JAS39 Gripen.
Ericsson developed the present PS-05/A multi-mode pulse-Doppler radar for the Gripen in partnership with GEC-Marconi Avionics of the UK.
Source: Flight International
