EADS outlines industry proposal to prolong its access to Sostar-X system
A five-nation industry team is preparing an offer to make Europe’s Sostar-X battlefield surveillance radar demonstrator available to military users, to support trials activities and major exercises beyond the completion of contracted development activities.
To culminate by mid-July with a two-day customer demonstration in Angers, France, the programme is intended to prove the sensor’s ability to provide simultaneous synthetic-aperture radar and moving target indication (SAR/MTI) imagery. Mounted on a Fokker 100 testbed, the payload has a claimed detection range of up to 80nm (150km), according to EADS. Technologies from the design are planned to be integrated with the proposed Transatlantic Cooperative AGS Radar (TCAR) system, which will equip NATO’s future Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) fleet of five modified Airbus A321 aircraft.
In advance of the final demonstration for Sostar-X partner nations France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, the industry partners will next month launch so-called V1 and V2 test campaigns of up to 12 flights from Munster in Germany. To build on the initial seven V0 flights conducted from May 2006 from Woensdrecht in the Netherlands, the new phase will conclude in March 2007.
A proposal to continue availability of the system will be made to partner nations next month, says Eva Semmler, EADS Military Air Systems’ project manager for the Sostar-X airborne mission system. Options backed by EADS include upgrading the current mission system and data processing equipment to enable industry or military users to more easily operate the system’s SAR/MTI payload, she says. “We have developed an air-to-ground surveillance system, and we need to keep that
know-how alive.”
EADS says the experience gained through the Sostar-X project will enable its partner nations “to negotiate AGS with the USA on an eye-to-eye level”, but the company last week voiced concerns that an additional delay to current NATO planning could result in the failure of the proposed TCAR programme, or even the cancellation of the entire AGS project unless a contract is placed next year.
Source: Flight International
