Northrop Grumman is forging ahead with development of its Mesa radar for the Boeing airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) Wedgetail aircraft.
Flight tests of the modified Boeing 737-700 started a year ago and both companies are committed to providing two of the aircraft to Australia by July 2007. Four more are planned to follow by the end of 2008.
Northrop and Boeing are also supplying the AEW&C aircraft to Turkey and are in talks with South Korea over a tender to provide four aircraft as part of the country’s E-X programme.
Proposals
South Korea has delayed its selection until at least mid-2006, saying it needs more time to evaluate the proposals. Seoul is also considering the Gulfstream G550 with Israel Aircraft Industries’ Elta Phalcon radar.
The Wedgetail, featuring a dorsal fin-mounted Mesa electronic scanning aperture radar, does away with the cumbersome rotating array found on earlier AWACS aircraft.
Northrop’s Joseph Schuster says that this configuration was found to provide the optimum performance.
“We tried side-mounted arrays, but these didn’t provide full 360° performance and also caused issues with the engine airflow and performance,” Schuster says.
The dorsal-mounted array that was adopted features two “billboards” on either side, plus a “top hat” for scanning to the front and rear.
“Mesa can provide full 360° scanning, 360° plus selected targeting, or emphasised threat sector and deep-look scanning depending on the mission needs,” he adds.
The Mesa design is also half the weight of a conventional rotodrive system, but provides more muscle thanks to the 360kva power available from the upgraded engine-powered generators.
While flying at its nominal 29,000ft (8,850m), the Mesa radar aboard the AEW&C can detect aircraft at more than 550km (300nm) range. Targets near the surface can be detected at more than 370km.
Source: Flight Daily News
