Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

Though the E-3B Sentry and E-2C Hawkeye are always receiving upgrades, it would seem that technology has progressed in terms of radars recently to far surpass the ability of current systems, were it to be utilized.

So, is there any plans in the works for new AEW aircraft or systems? It would be interesting to see what sort of range and capabilities we could get out of a newly designed AESA equipped AEW aircraft compared to the older technology.

It would seem such a future upgrade would work well when used in conjuction with fighters such as the F-18E/F and the F-22. However, since the fighters have so much of the "cool" aspect, I rarely hear such things as AEW aircraft or systems discussed. So I was just curious if we had any new stuff on the drawing board.

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Not sure why you'd say that. The new E-10 was supposed to be capable of replacing both the JSTARS as ell as the AWACS, but that only means the technology is moving to one platform, not eliminating a key mission. the F-22/F-35 may have pretty cosmic systems in terms of radar and datalinks, but to remain LO they still are limited in what they can do. An airborne, high power radar is a important now as ever.

For example, Australia just recently taken delivery of a new AWACS-type aircraft, the Wedgetail

Is that Airbus or Boeing?

Its a boeing 737.

Roscoe wrote:

Not sure why you'd say that. The new E-10 was supposed to be capable of replacing both the JSTARS as ell as the AWACS, but that only means the technology is moving to one platform, not eliminating a key mission. the F-22/F-35 may have pretty cosmic systems in terms of radar and datalinks, but to remain LO they still are limited in what they can do. An airborne, high power radar is a important now as ever.

I really wasn't suggesting otherwise. I was simply stating that it seems the E-3B and E-2C are rather old technology. They were designed in the 1970's and teamed with F-14's and F-15's to handle air defense duties.

We now have much more capable aircraft such as the F-22 and F-18E/F with much more sophisticated systems coming on line now. I was just curious if we were developing or planning an AEW aircraft that would match the new fighters in terms of advancement in capability. It seems some of the AESA radars have incredible range. I bet you could fit one with tremendous range and power on an aircraft of airliner size. Such extra range and processing speed could make our new generation fighters even more deadly and capable.

I noticed the Israelis are producing an AEW system that uses AESA radar. It replaced the traditional rotating dome on top with a static unit that somewhat resembles what a "third engine" atop the rear fuselage of an airliner would look like. But yet it's advertised range is no greater than the conventional units we already use.

Fox1 what we are seeing are new AEW aircraft with MESA and AESA radar systems being developed slowly. I see where you are coming from though...

I think it is a slow evolution . AESA is way expensive and heavy for the large AWACS /AEW platforms.

The 737/700 Wedgetail picture shown by Roscoe is a good example of new thinking. The Wedgetail uses MESA--Multi role Electronically Scanned Array radar.

The E-2D advanced Hawkeye will answer most of your questions at least with the Navy. The Hawkeye D will feature Mechanical scan to an AESA radar to increase field of view, a first I believe.

I have also seen a P-3 with the Hawkeye radome installed. AEW is expensive, there are only a few hundred AEW aircraft in service throughout the whole world, as opposed to thousands of fighters. The technology is coming along nicely though. Manufacturers are going AESA/MESA,, here is a picture of the Ericsson Erieye radar which is mounted on board SAAB 2000 aircraft. The same radar can be fitted to virtually anything and is AESA.. It is the affordable solution. Great for smaller forces.

The Israeli Phalcon? AESA looks very expensive, is that the system using conformal AESA panels on a 707? I think it can use a "fixed" dome as well. It is said to be more capable than the Sentry. Phalcon was $250 Million in old money!

Can you imagine the cost/weight of an enormous AESA radome on a 777 for example? Or conformal coverage with AESA panels? It is just cheaper to go with rotating domes, standard radar, you use one radar and get full 360 coverage. Just develop better radars and systems. The E-2D is a fine example which is actually going the whole hog, AESA included. The Hawkeye is significantly smaller than an E-3 though.

J-stars uses AESA for looking at ground targets. The UKs ASTOR uses AESA for the same job. New J-stars type systems with ground surveilance capability seem to be going AESA.

AESA can also, it has been suggested, be used offensively, to burn through enemy radar lobes and disrupt electronics within missiles. I wouldn`t be at all surprised if this is a current capability on some aircraft... When the TR modules get cheaper and lighter, there will be AESA radars everywhere. Or if somebody finds a better/cheaper/different approach to making those radars.

In a recent airshow I saw an Embraer ERJ-145 with Erieye radar installed. Is it the same as the SAAB model ? This one belongs to HAF (or will be operational with HAF soon), so there you go for usage on smaller airforces Very Happy

It looks way cool with all the new fins installed too IMO

Seat dreamer, yep, the same radar is fitted to the Saab and the Embraer -145. I have seen the Erieye radar fitted to about 4 different aircraft up to now.

Sweden use the S100B Argus with Erieye radar as AEW aircraft.
Brazil use it with Embraer aircraft, the 145 or R-99
Greece uses two systems leased from Sweden.

Aparently, Pakistan and Saudi were interested.

The radar has a detection range of 350km against fighter sized targets. (According to Ericsson) so makes a good mni-AWACS.

Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

What does the future hold for AWACS?