Raytheon expects to achieve two major milestones with its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar family over the next month with the start of tests of the first Boeing F-15C fitted with an APG-63(V)3 and the first flight of a Northrop Grumman B-2A with a twin AESA-equipped APQ-181 radar. The (V)3 AESA radar will be tested at Eglin AFB, Florida before being installed in an initial batch of six Air National Guard (ANG)-operated F-15Cs as well as Singapore’s F-15SGs. However, Raytheon is hopeful the advanced radar will eventually be adopted for at least 48 aircraft in the ANG fleet.
Eighteen of the US Air Force’s 178 F-15C fleet allotted for long-term service through 2025 have also been fitted with the APG-63(V)2 radar, which combines the upgraded (V)1 back-end with the AESA active array. Raytheon continues to push for the balance of the retained 160-strong USAF F-15C/D fleet to be upgraded, and says the lighter (V)3 AESA remains an option, despite the retrofit having again been almost certainly removed from the forthcoming 2008 US defence budget. Boeing also confirms that the contest to upgrade the F-15E’s APG-70 radar, originally expected to begin with a request for proposals this month, has been delayed to around November 2007.
The competition will pit the APG-63(V)4, combining the (V)3 AESA antenna with back-end elements of the F/A-18E/F’s Raytheon APG-79, against Northrop Grumman’s APG-77 radar used in the Lockheed Martin F-22.
Source: Flight International
