EADS DS completes European radar technology research

2044
EADS Defence & Security (DS) together with its partner companies has successfully concluded two major radar technology programmes paving the way for unprecedented performance from its new Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radar technology.

The German-French-British Airborne Multirole Solid-state Active-array Radar (AMSAR) research programme recently ended with the delivery of data evaluation reports to sponsors.

The research was done by a DS subsidiary Defence Electronics along with Selex Galileo and Thales.

Almost at the same time the German-British CECAR Captor E-sCAn Risk-reduction) programme has led to the successful integration of a radar demonstrator system specifically adapted to the Eurofighter/Typhoon.

Under CECAR, Defence Electronics together with Selex Galileo developed a radar demonstrator proving the feasibility of replacing the existing “Captor” Eurofighter radar. The demonstrator dubbed “CAESAR” was successfully flown on-board Eurofighter in 2007 (pictured).
“Over more than a decade, the joint effort of our customer nations and the partner industries has proven the enormous potential of AESA technology”, says Bernd Wenzler, CEO of Defence Electronics.

“From this basis we are already looking at the next technology steps toward multifunction sensors, which will introduce multisensor performance and reduce through-life cost but need similar long-term research effort.”

AMSAR was a technology programme jointly pursued since the early 1990s by an industrial consortium comprising Defence Electronics, Selex Galileo and Thales aiming at the development of the next-generation AESA radar technology.

The programme aimed at de-risking AESA radar technologies prior to their potential insertion into service with different platforms of the land, sea and air forces.


AESA technology offers operational advantages such as simultaneous exertion of numerous radar modes, jamming resistance and increased reliability, all amounting to significantly reduced life-cycle cost.

Instead of mechanical movement of the antenna, AESA radars use electronical steering exerted by up to several thousand of T/R (transmit/receive) modules, basically small radars itself which enable maximum performance and versatility.