The run-up to decision time on NATO's surveillance need has begun.
Andrew Chuter/LONDON
AIRBORNE GROUND surveillance and targeting came of age in the 1991 US-led Desert Storm operation against Iraq when two Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems (JSTARS) development aircraft received glowing praise for their performance.
Five years later, the knock-on effect of that deployment could be seen at Farnborough as US contractors expounded the virtues of systems which are aimed at meeting UK and NATO requirements.
Farnborough's timing could hardly have been bettered as rival contracting teams led by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon E-Systems prepared to submit project-definition studies for a British Army/Royal Air Force programme known as Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR). Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works have also responded to a UK request for information on their JSTARS and U-2 respectively.
A decision on a winning contractor is expected by early 1998, if the programme survives political opposition in the coming months. The fact that the ASTOR has been around in various guises for at least 15 years demonstrates its previous vulnerability to indecision over technology, inter-service wrangling over ownership and funding. Now, with most of these issues resolved, it faces political uncertainty as a general election, possibly followed by a defence review, threaten budgets already under pressure after purchases of items such as fighters, missiles and helicopters.
The debate is complicated because 280km (150nm) away in Brussels, NATO has a provisional programme office undertaking project definition of its own, for a surveillance and battle-management system to replicate the sort of capability over the battlefield that it already has in the air with 17 E-3A AWACS aircraft.
NATO ministers are scheduled to decide on whether the requirement is urgent when they meet in November. If the Alliance can be prevailed upon to act quickly, contract go-ahead could arrive as early as mid-1998, with the first delivery of aircraft in 2002, enabling NATO to respond to conflicts without relying on US resources - as it has done in Bosnia, where the JSTARS has again proved invaluable.
With the UK looking for possibly six aircraft and NATO up to 18 aircraft, each with associated ground stations, contractors are competing for over $2.5 billion of business.
There are several problems to be overcome, however, primarily finding sufficient Alliance members to fund the programme, and defining the requirement. Aside from the JSTARS and ASTOR fixed-wing options, NATO is also considering the more limited tactical solutions offered by the recently operational French Horizon Eurocopter Puma-based Moving Target Indicator (MTI) radar and a smaller Italian system carried on a Agusta Bell 412 and called the CRESO.
If unmanned-vehicle technology is discounted as not being mature enough to meet the requirement, NATO's options are probably to choose from a strategic fixed-wing force or a combination of strategic/tactical systems.
The JSTARS and the ASTOR offer a dual MTI/synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) capability, whereas the helicopters have only MTI radars offering tactical coverage.
The JSTARS, for example, has an MTI able to detect, identify and track vehicles covering a search area of nearly 50,000km2 (19,300miles2) at a stand-off range of more than 200km. SAR provides a high-resolution image of terrain and stationary assets.
The UK favours adapting a long-range business jet - Raytheon has selected the Canadair Global Express and Lockheed Martin has chosen the Gulfstream V - with limited image exploitation on board and the bulk of the work being undertaken in mobile ground stations.
When the horse trading starts at NATO over requirement and funding, the old adage of "-you pays your money and takes your choice" may be an accurate reflection of what transpires.
Source: Flight International