he APG-77’s active aperture antenna offers attractive benefits. The system exhibits a very low radar cross section, supporting the F-22’s stealthy design. Reliability of the all-solid-state system is expected to be substantially better than the already highly reliable F-16 radar, with MTBF predicted at more than 450 hours. AESA life-cycle costs are expected to be significantly lower than those of MSAs. The active arrays on the F-22 should have almost twice the expected life of the airframe.

Northrop Grumman has successfully demonstrated the capability to generate high-resolution, in-flight synthetic aperture radar (SAR) maps. Flight tests, on board a company BAC 1-11 test bed aircraft, have proved that the F-22 fighter’s mission capabilities have expanded to include directly identifying and targeting enemy ground defenses and mobile forces.

The F-22 uses sensors and SAR maps for targeting. remember the passive sensors make it a mini Rivet joint. This alone is enough to provide a firing solution on anything emmitimg.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/systems/an-apg-77.htm

urrently in developmental testing at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California is the new Increment 3.1 upgrade package for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. This set of upgrades will significantly increase the aircraft’s air-to-ground strike capability. When fielded in 2011, these modifications will enable Block 30 capabilities for the Air Force’s small operational fleet of Raptors. All F-22s presently flying with the United States Air Force (USAF) are fitted with the current Increment 2 package, enabling a fleet-wide Block 20 capability.

Increment 3.1, which is the first of three incremental upgrades programmed for the Raptor, is well into developmental testing and is scheduled to enter its operational test phase with the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) at Nellis AFB, Nevada, sometime next year, says Cara Miller, Deputy Director of F-22 Modernization at the USAF’s F-22 System Program Office (SPO). The completed package, tentatively scheduled to become operational in fiscal year 2011, adds a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mapping feature along with an Electronic Attack (EA) capability to aircraft, Miller said.

So Aesa and ALQ-94 now and SAR mapping next year.

http://www.usaf-sig.org/index.php/component/content/article/103-f-22a-sharpening-the-raptors-talons

No one said that Raptors can’t score against Rafale. It is expected that it does. The thing is that it doesn’t score nearly as easily as you fanboys would love it to. For an one trick pony like the F-22 that’s quite lagging behind what is claimed. Where are those 150:0 scores, suddenly? 😉

Why do you keep calling the Raptor a 1 trick pony? the Raptor can do A2A + ANG Just as good as any euro-canard can.

Scorpion , you said :

I gave it to you .
Nothing about a “super duper upper radar.”

Jessmo , the Emirati don ‘t say that the Aesa RBE2 is a bad radar , they want a better RBE2 . Note the difference .
It seems that the Aesa RBE2 as a range 10% shorter than the APG-80 .
The GMTT / GMTI capability (detection and tracking of moving ground target) is part of the actual roadmap and will be included in the software at a later stage .
Interlacing modes are already implemented and operational . I remind you that the radar is now in low production phase .

Regarding SPECTRA , the system has reached the end of the F3 standard and the F4 roadmap is already founded .
From some French pilots , only 2/3 of the total potential is in use today .
For now , the system still use some “analogic” components but will be upgraded fully to “digital” , using latest European MMICs .
SPECTRA is and still is the only AESA jammer worldwide and the system has proven its huge capabilities countless times .

Cheers .

are you sure?
Raptor Radar
F-22 Raptor
Photo courtesy DOD/Air Force Flight Test Center/Judson Brohmer
This F/A-22 is carrying two AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles in its side weapons bays.

The radar system gives the F/A-22 first-look, first-shot, first-kill capability. That means it can see an enemy plane first, fire a missile and destroy the target without the other pilot ever knowing about it.

The AN/APG-77 radar was developed specifically for the F/A-22. It uses an active, electronically scanned antenna array of 2,000 transmitter/receiver modules. The radar provides pilots with detailed information about multiple threats before the adversary’s radar ever detects the F/A-22.

Also, the radar can jam enemy electronics systems and communicate voice and data information over a secure link.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/f-22-raptor.htm/printable

From the current issue of DSI magazine, in an article called “Awaiting the UAE”:

And about the UAE demand to have a more powerful RBE2 radar, could it answer to some expectations for the Air force?

The Air Force is interested in having a RBE2 with an active antenna. It is now established with the powerful AESA antenna which will equip our tranche 4 Rafale. What the Emirians are calling for is much more complex. They want, in addition to the AESA, to have new functionalities on their Rafale, such as GMTT / GMTI (detection and tracking of moving ground target), interlacing between air/air and air/ground modes, etc.. Even if this is not for us an urgent need, the operational ‘plus’ obtained could nonetheless eventually interest us. However, the key Emirian demand is about the range of the RBE2. And, with the same antenna diameter, the only way to achieve the 10% range increase (compared with the Basic AESA F3 “roadmap”) that wish to obtain the Emirians, is a big boost to the power of the radar.

But more power to the RBE2, could it be a risk to generate serious electromagnetic interference (EMI) with the SPECTRA receptors ?

There is indeed a very real EMI risk to treat. This is the case whenever we want to change aircraft emission systems. There are solutions, obviously, but this will require to reexamine SPECTRA. But the biggest problem we have identified is about electric generation, which could be insufficient. To increase the maximum range of a few nautical miles, we would have to deeply review the electrical generation system of the aircraft.
In short, to conceive what it could be a Rafale-9, that is to say a new aircraft moving away from the similarity you want with french Rafale. The Emirati experts participating in negotiations are well aware of the problem. But they are also used to have very high quality weapons systems. They want to avoid any regression with the Rafale, at least on the radar range, compared to the F-16 Block 60, the Rafale having also many other qualities. The Emirians don?t have AWACS and therefore want – it is a fundamental requirement – that the Rafale can see very far. Beyond the radar, they are showing fairly strong requirements into SPECTRA development with, for example, the expansion of some frequency bands, an increased sensitivity, adding functionalities; in short, they want we push up the current technologies. Of course, to improve the electronic warfare of our Rafale faster than originally planned could be an additional operational advantage for the Air force. However, our current approach is to consolidate the features implemented in SPECTRA, to make them more robust and make it easier for operators and programmers before wanting to go further into addition of new capabilities. The current SPECTRA is working well and even very good. In sum, what separates us, about Spectra, is a matter of timing and calendar [?]. In a more general way, we share the same wishes about capabilities, but with very different maturities calendar sometimes. Budgetary constraints remain a dimensioning factor.