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| SOSTAR-X has been developed to meet requirements set by NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance programme |
Europe’s stand-off surveillance and target acquisition radar (SOSTAR-X) demonstrator has entered flight testing following completion of electromagnetic interference/compatibility tests.
The active electronically scanned array airborne ground surveillance radar system was integrated in Friedrichshafen, Germany and installed in the Fokker 100 “SX” testbed aircraft in Woensdrecht, the Netherlands. An initial 4h test flight was performed on 4 May with the Dutch army controlling fixed and moving “targets”, which outgoing SOSTAR-X general manager Enno Littmann says was “extremely successful”.
His successor, Peter Angenoorth, says mission system flight tests have begun and will be conducted in three phases over the next 12 months, in the Netherlands and Germany. The capabilities of the SOSTAR-X are due to be demonstrated to customer nations in France early next year, including wide-area ground moving target indicator scanning and tracking and high-resolution spotlight and swathe synthetic-aperture radar imaging. SOSTAR is a joint venture between Dutch Space, EADS, Galileo Avionica, Indra Sistemas and Thales and was set up to demonstrate surveillance technology to meet the requirements of NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance programme. The work is being funded by France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
Source: Flight International
