Paul Lewis/PATUXENT RIVER
The US Navy is drawing up a strategy for the planned Advanced Hawkeye follow-on to the Northrop Grumman E-2C following the recent completion of industry studies of an electronically scanned radar, new mission avionics, software and logistics support.
Prime contractor and systems integrator Northrop Grumman has submitted five studies covering each area and the overall package. Additional sensor studies were submitted by Northrop Grumman's Electronics Sensors and Systems Sector, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems and Raytheon Electronic Systems.
The US Navy is aiming to launch the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) effort in fiscal year 2003 in order to begin fielding the Advanced Hawkeye from 2006. The navy had hoped to secure EMD funding in 2002, but this appears to have slipped.
Advanced Hawkeye is to be an airborne early warning system compatible with the navy's theatre air and missile defence architecture, as well as sustaining a "viable production line" at Northrop Grumman's St Augustine, Florida, plant, says Capt Lee Lilly, USN E-2C/C-2A programme manager.
Northrop Grumman is scheduled to deliver the last of 21 new build E-2C Hawkeye 2000s to the USN in early 2006. The navy requires 75 Hawkeyes to equip 10 AEW squadrons, and is looking at a trade-off between maintaining production of four E-2Cs a year and/or upgrading its Group 2 standard aircraft.
At the heart of Advanced Hawkeye is a replacement electronically scanned array for the E-2's Lockheed Martin APS-145 radar. A key requirement is to accommodate the proposed APS-XX within the existing 7.3m (24ft) diameter rotodome to avoid "messing with the aircraft's aerodynamics", says Lilly.
A radar modernisation demonstration is planned at Patuxent River next year using an ex-US Coast Guard Lockheed Martin EC-130V testbed. It will be equipped with a new 18-channel space-time adaptive processor and multi-channel coupler. A key test will be whether this works in a high clutter environment, adds Lilly.
A separate flight demonstration is due to begin in December this year of a long range surveillance infra-red search and track system fitted to an E-2C. Other proposed Advanced Hawkeye elements include a cockpit upgrade with provision for a tactical AEW display, data fusion and a modular communications suite.
Meanwhile, the US Navy plans to retrofit its E-2C fleet with the Hamilton Sundstrand NP2000 eight-blade propeller by 2004. Flight testing of the propeller, a development of the six-blade 568, is due to begin shortly following roll-out of the first modified aircraft. It also plans to retrofit the C-2A transport, which like the E-2C is equipped with an obsolete four-blade unit.
Source: Flight International
