Forum: F-35 Avionics

Quote:

Northrop Grumman to pitch new AESA radar to export customers Dave Majumdar 11 Sep 2012

"Northrop Grumman plans to offer a new radar based on the antenna of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's (JSF) APG-81 active electronically scanned array (AESA) combined with the receiver, exciter and processors (REP) of its Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) to potential foreign upgrade customers....

...The new system would have the power and performance of the APG-81, but at much lower cost.

The SABR REP cannot be retrofitted back into the F-35 because APG-81 does not have a "backend" as such, instead most of the processing for the radar is performed in the JSF's core processors, says Joe Ensor, Northrop's vice president for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and targeting systems.

Antkowiak says that though the new radar will be offered to both foreign and domestic customers, the radar is most likely to be offered for export to customers flying the Boeing F-15, F/A-18 or Lockheed F-16. That is because US F-15s and F/A-18s are already being upgraded with Raytheon-built AESA radar sets.

One of the advantages of using the APG-81 antenna is that it is already cleared for export, Ensor says. Therefore, it should not be difficult to get the new radar cleared for sale to foreign allies."

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... rs-376369/

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[quote="spazsinbad...One of the advantages of using the APG-81 antenna is that it is already cleared for export, Ensor says. Therefore, it should not be difficult to get the new radar cleared for sale to foreign allies."[/quote]

..and another piece of the pie hits the table! Smile

Raytheon got the first AESA move in on the US/ Boeing -15/-18 and now NG is making a move on them overseas. What will be interesting will be the feature set that NG will offer in merged sensor displays. The US stuff is basically classified but inorder to sell to foreign forces, NG will have to declare the system capabilities, as I understand. Wink

This should give us some insight into the system upgrades available for the SLEP for the US jets. Some will say they are not getting "said upgrades" but if they are on the market then they can be "IN" a revised scope of budget in the blink of an eye.

Once you start down the digital road with a Mission System, Flight Safety takes on it's on set of "non-violatable" parameters and everything else is up for grabs. No steam gauges! Laughing

To close the loop the APG-81 AESA will be the first of many technologies that the -35 will share with evolving completmentary aircraft; fighters, bombers, ISR, etc. Cool

My

Fixed it for ya Wink

Quote:

APG-81 AESA will be the third of many technologies...

The first two were:

1. Stealth tech for F-22
2. EODAS is already being marketed for 360 shipboard SA

Add,MADL to the list as,well...

I did not add MADL due to the project has been postponed.

Forum: F-35 Avionics

Northrop Grumman pitch new AESA ['APG-81'/F-35] radar export