As I spent some time to write this as a PM reply, I thought others might be interested in it as well.

(c)scorpion82

It is difficult to say how advanced the Captor-E is right now. The participating companies gained a lot of experience through the tri-naitonal AMSAR programme which was launched back in 1993 and the bi-national CECAR programme launched in April 2002. Both programmes have been concluded by late 2008.

AMSAR (Airborne Multirole Solid-state Active-array Radar) was a government funded effort between Germany, Great Britain and France involving GEC-Marconi (now Selex Galileo), DASA (now EADS Defence Electronics) and Thomson-CSF (now Thales). The goal of the AMSAR programme was to develope the technology required to design an airborne fighter sized AESA radar. The first prototype was ground tested in 1998 feature an antenna with 144 TRMs. Around 2006 it was stated that a full demonstrator would soon be flown, featuring a 60 cm antenna with 1000 TRMs. It’s not known when, where and on what the prototype has been flown, but as the programme has been finished it’s likely that the tests were passed successfully somewhere between 2006 and 2008.

CECAR (Captor E-Scan Risk Reduction) was a German-British effort specifically aimed at developing an AESA solution for the Typhoon based on the existing Captor radar. CECAR’s main goal was to develop the key technologies which are critical for an Captor AESA radar and the programme was government funded and completed around the same time as AMSAR.

In parallel to the CECAR programme the EuroRadar consortium launched the self funded CAESAR programme (Captor Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar) with some 14 mln USD being invested. The CAESAR demonstrator was based on the Captor-D radar then in production for the tranche 2 aircraft, retaining its receiver and radar processor. 3 new LRIs were developed, integrated and successfully ground tested by late 2005. These components included a new power supply, an antenna control unit (ACU) and the AESA antenna itself holding some 1426 GAa based TRMs designed by EADS Defence Electronics. The CAESAR demonstrator was subsequently fitted to the BAC 1-11 radar trials aircraft, which was previously used for the original Captor/ECR90 development. The CAESAR was first flown on this aircraft on 24th February 2006 and a 5 week trials campaign was conduced with 7 test flights being performed. The CAESAR was operated for some 21 hours and reportedly performed well and in some cases beyond expectations. Trials included multi target detection and tracking of aerial targets and the generation of SAR maps. As CAESAR retained the software from the Captor-D it didn’t offer any additional modes or capabilities by that time. This first campaign was used to gather data and validate the basic design. Industry sources back then suggested that the demonstrator comes close to a production ready version and insisted that with a contract a productionized version could have been ready by 2011/2012. The CAESAR was then fitted to a Typhoon to check that the system fits into the aircraft’s nose and check out the connectivity to the other interfaces including the power supply. The German BWB (federal defence technology and procurement agency) then funded a small trials campaign aboard Eurofighter prototype DA5. The first flight with the CAESAR was conduced on 8th May 2007 and a total of 4 flights were conducted to test the system in the Eurofighter environment including its interaction with other onboard systems. The CAESAR was then again fitted to the BAC 1-11 and has been trialed at Manching somewhere around late 2008/early 2009. The current state is unknown however.

On top of that Selex designed its Vixen family of AESA radars on offer for smaller aircraft and developed the ARTS demonstrator (Advanced Radar Targeting System) as part of the Reforger programme. ARTS was developed in 2007 or so and was a demonstrator for an AESA radar slatted for the RAF’s Tornado GR.4s. While the RAF hasn’t ordered it the UK MoD sponsored demonstrator has been successfully tested and was use to investigate into Elecontric Attack functions and developing the swash-plate AESA antenna which has now been integrated onto the ES-05/A Raven demonstrator onboard the Gripen Demo.

There were certainly other programmes among the members of the EuroRadar consortium concerning the development of AESA radars and certain related technologies.

In February 2010 the UK MoD has signed a contract with Selex to develop another new AESA radar demonstrator for the Typhoon. This demonstrator is scheduled to fly on a Typhoon in 2013. The development of this demonstrator is decoupled from any multinational effort and is Britains fall back option in case a multinational development fails. Experience gained will nonetheless flow into the any multinational effort. EuroRadar has started pre-funding the development of the Captor-E radar somewhen back in early 2010. A final configuration has been agreed on and full scale development has been launched in July 2010. The pre-funding will likely finish in a few weeks. There has been no recent news about a formal commitment and funding from the partner nations, but it could be that such an agreement won’t be announced. We’ll see.

According the current plans Captor-E should be ready by 2015 and given the achievements up to date I think the schedule can be met and that India will receive AESA equipped Typhoons from the very beginning. Of course there is a risk of delays, but I think the chances are looking good that Captor-E will be ready in time, the back up option of a UK funded solution exists as well.

This is the kind of work that should be payed.

I love the USAF Budget, the 2012 is out.
The gimnastics that these guys do to make a program look ok!
Now i´ve been looking through the USAF budget every february for a lot of years, and i´ve seen severall of these budgets “massaged” so that the numbers look right for some specific program, but this year it goes one up, i dont know if its pure incompetence, plain stupidity or something else.
The blasted idiots just invented a new concept of “Fly away unit cost” for the first 15 F-35A!
One in wich the “Fly Away Unit Costs” (incorrect numbers in page 57 and correct numbers in page 59) is inferior to the to combined total of the airframe and avionics costs, nevermind the engine!

This one aside, the costs, whatever the way they are counted have gone up again.

http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110211-038.pdf

P.S. What you point on the RBE 2 radar and not only on the detection range, but about it in general?

First, kudos to thales and the French MOD, they´ve put their money where their mouth was and deployed a working AESA on a fighter some three to five years before the european competition.

Second, it is indeed a small radar, i dont have any doubts that the roughly 850+ TRM count is correct, i have three diferent photos, of three diferent radar sets from three diferent years, and they are all identical, this last frontal photo was taken at the exact same time that the lateral photo of the B302 was taken, the same photo that Thales uses in his site to advertise this: http://www.thalesgroup.com/Pages/PressRelease.aspx?id=15254
The number of TRM´s is also correct when taken in consideration the recent comparison with the range of the AN/APG-80.

Well, well…

One of the finest Portuguese language aerospace “forumers” just joined the Key publishing forum.

Cheers (Abraços) Charlie 🙂

If the french were a little samrt, they would have modified the picture.
The number is however consistent with the old picture of the radar in the Thales labs.
It is however unconsistent with repeated claims of around 1000 modules.
863 is not around 1000.

In marketing brochures, 863 is indeed “around 1000 TRM´s”.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/02/09/352925/aero-india-eurofighter-reveals-offer-to-produce-navalised.html

DATE:09/02/11

SOURCE:Flight Daily News

AERO INDIA: Eurofighter reveals offer to produce navalised Typhoon
By Craig Hoyle

The Eurofighter consortium is offering India the opportunity to acquire a new version of its Typhoon for use from a future indigenous aircraft carrier, with the first firm details of the proposal having emerged at the show.

Being shown in model form for the first time this week, the European type would receive several new features to support its proposed life at sea. These include a new, stronger landing gear, a modified arrestor hook and thrust-vectoring control nozzles for its two Eurojet EJ200 turbofan engines. The latter would enable the fighter to approach the vessel at a reduced speed without restricting pilot vision by requiring an increased angle of attack.

Eurofighter says only localised strengthening would be required on some fuselage sections near the landing gear, and to the EJ200. Conformal fuel tanks could also be integrated with the airframe to extend the strike aircraft’s range.

Video footage being shown in the Eurofighter and BAE exhibit areas includes recent simulation-based imagery of tests made using adapted flight control software and new engine modelling. Sporting Indian navy markings, the navalised Typhoon is depicted taking off from a deck space similar to that aboard the ex-Russian navy aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, which is now being modified for Indian use.

Also of interest for Indian applications is a new weapons option being displayed for the first time with a full-scale model of the Typhoon. Working in conjunction with Saab and Diehl, Eurofighter is offering the RBS15 anti-ship missile as a future payload for the multi-role fighter.

The company is also showcasing technologies including an active electronically scanned array radar offered for the Typhoon, and providing demonstrations with a BAE-developed smart helmet display system for the type.

Its the design that was offered to the Italian Marina Militare a few years ago.
Instead of strengthening the entire airframe to cope with the heavy sink rates, they´ve went to TVC in order to achieve very low aproaching speeds, its an idea.
Well, the chances of that thing actually being built are more or less the same of a snowball surviving for a few hours in mid summer Algarve.

There is an alternative, but its maturity level will be questionable when the CVFs are ready. Navy wants UCLASS sooner than 2018
Stealthy and 4000km combat radius/11+ hour endurance with PGMs totaling 500kg.

UCLASS capability would allow CVFs in the IO to hunt Iranian Shahab TELs before they could rain missiles upon London.

There´s a UK MOD study of a “UCLASS Lite” (very “lite”) type of program named the “Novel Air Concept”.
If the entire CVF program went “tit* up”, on a last case they could go for something like a “UCAV light Cruiser” equiped with something like that “Novel” concept, at least in theory (yes, i know, far fetched).