Raytheon E-Systems will offer the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) four modified Airbus Industrie A310s to meet the RAAF's airborne early warning and Control (AEW&C) System requirement, "Project Wedgetail".
The four A310s are being provided by Airbus Industrie, the aircraft are likely to be second hand aircraft held by the European consortium. The AEW aircraft are slated to enter service with the RAAF in 2002.
Israeli radar manufacturer Elta will fit a phased-array radar providing 360¹ coverage. The phased- array antennas will be mounted in a fixed dome mounted on the rear fuselage. Lockheed Martin, offering an AEW variant of its C-130J Hercules II, and Boeing, with a derivative of its 737, are also competing for the order.
Announcing its final teaming partners in Canberra on 24 January, E-Systems unveiled several Australian participants in its bid. It says that the companies would contribute to all phases from development and integration through flight-test, modification and through life-support.
Software and systems engineering company Adacel will provide software-engineering design, development and prototyping support for all phases of the programme and will implement and monitor software development risk-mitigation for various segments of the AEW project.
Australian defence company ADI will play a major role in the command, control, communications and computer design, integration, and through-life system software support.
E-Systems Australia, formed by Raytheon E-Systems to support the RAAF's Lockheed Martin AP-3C Sea Sentinel upgrade project, will co-ordinate efforts through the Australian production phase of the programme and will be the focal point for managing initial integrated logistics support.
Hawker de Havilland Systems Engineering will provide integration-design support, integrating and installing the mission system, and through-life support. Honeywell would provide avionics systems, integration, and overall training and training systems design and implementation for the operational flight-trainer, operational-mission simulator and the mission-support system.
Source: Flight International
