372 APG-83 AESAs for F-16s
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Northrop Grumman Gets Funding for Hundreds of F-16 Radars
Northrop Grumman will build hundreds of active electronically scanned array radars for the F-16 fighter jet under a Dec. 19 contract worth more than $1 billion.
The contract covers work on up to 372 radars through May 2027. It modifies an earlier award to finalize the funding.
AESA radars like Northrop’s APG-83 are used to find and identify targets.
“The greater bandwidth, speed, and agility of AESA radars enable fighter and legacy aircraft to detect, track, and identify a greater [number] of targets, faster and at longer ranges, and to operate in hostile electronic environments,” according to Northrop.
The radar is a “fifth-generation fighter radar capability for the fourth-gen aircraft,” the company said.
“Building on Northrop Grumman’s 40-year legacy producing radars for the F-16, [the APG-83] integrates within the F-16’s current structural, power and cooling constraints without … aircraft modification,” Northrop said.
https://www.airforcemag.com/northrop-gr ... 16-radars/
Hope this radar upgrade no longer limited to ANG Vipers. The Block 50/52 active service Vipers should get it too as they have the longest service life remaining.
Northrop Grumman will build hundreds of active electronically scanned array radars for the F-16 fighter jet under a Dec. 19 contract worth more than $1 billion.
The contract covers work on up to 372 radars through May 2027. It modifies an earlier award to finalize the funding.
AESA radars like Northrop’s APG-83 are used to find and identify targets.
“The greater bandwidth, speed, and agility of AESA radars enable fighter and legacy aircraft to detect, track, and identify a greater [number] of targets, faster and at longer ranges, and to operate in hostile electronic environments,” according to Northrop.
The radar is a “fifth-generation fighter radar capability for the fourth-gen aircraft,” the company said.
“Building on Northrop Grumman’s 40-year legacy producing radars for the F-16, [the APG-83] integrates within the F-16’s current structural, power and cooling constraints without … aircraft modification,” Northrop said.
https://www.airforcemag.com/northrop-gr ... 16-radars/
Hope this radar upgrade no longer limited to ANG Vipers. The Block 50/52 active service Vipers should get it too as they have the longest service life remaining.
This 372 order is all for the USAF
viewtopic.php?p=426443#p426443
The ANG has got a separate order of 72 for its F-16
viewtopic.php?p=425644#p425644
viewtopic.php?p=426443#p426443
The ANG has got a separate order of 72 for its F-16
viewtopic.php?p=425644#p425644
First Air National Guard F-16 receives AESA radar
https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing ... 67.article
https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing ... 67.article
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sadly it will be cooling limited.
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marsavian wrote:Still, better than before, finer resolution and stealthier both in antenna position and radiating use even if not quite APG-80 level. Not bad for a fighter that started out as a cheap dogfighter with sidewinders .
It is pretty bad
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eloise wrote:marsavian wrote:Still, better than before, finer resolution and stealthier both in antenna position and radiating use even if not quite APG-80 level. Not bad for a fighter that started out as a cheap dogfighter with sidewinders .
It is pretty bad
Those numbers sound awfully conservative, even for the APG-68(v)9, much less the APG-80/83.
It's from this research paper
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Despite not having the more extensive cooling design as current AESA radars on other western fighter aircraft, wouldnt the APG-83 make up for this by being a newer design?
The APG-80 was late 90s early 2000s. The APG-83 was developed an entire decade later. We see that newer technologies can lead to substantial improvements. The F-22s APG-77 took some things from the F-35s radar program which gave the Raptors radar an increase in performance.
The APG-80 was late 90s early 2000s. The APG-83 was developed an entire decade later. We see that newer technologies can lead to substantial improvements. The F-22s APG-77 took some things from the F-35s radar program which gave the Raptors radar an increase in performance.
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charlielima223 wrote:Despite not having the more extensive cooling design as current AESA radars on other western fighter aircraft, wouldnt the APG-83 make up for this by being a newer design?
Impossible to say without seeing what changes have been made and actual figures on performance - currently cooling being a bottleneck is an educated guess not necessarily the reality.
This is from 2014 and I suppose it could have been changed again since then.
“When we incorporated the Block 60 AESA radar, we had to change the ECS [Environmental Control System] system on the airplane. We had to change the electrical system on the airplane. You just don’t put a bigger fan on it; you’ve got a lot of tubing, etc. That was one of the reasons that drove us to a Block 60 — because of the infrastructure,” McHenry says.
In contrast, the Northrop Grumman SABR and competing Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar (RACR) evaluated for the CAPES both fit the existing Block 40-to-52 cooling and power infrastructure. “That’s the magic that the SABR and the RACR brought to the table,” said McHenry.
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The mechanically scanned APG-66 and -68 radars in F-16s have four LRUs. The SABR AESA antenna eliminates a dedicated transmitter LRU, and a single supporting Receiver/Transmitter Processor replaces today’s discrete receiver and processor LRUs. Wagner could not disclose actual weight and volume savings but says, “Four major LRUs are eliminated from the aircraft and replaced by only two LRUs. … We’ve eliminated federated boxes around the aircraft. We have everything on a single backplane with a lot more processing power and memory for better test.”
Eliminating conventional transmitter and travelling wave tube hardware from the SABR eliminates the most failure-prone parts of today’s radars. Reliability of the next-greatest-failure item — the receiver-exciter — is also enhanced with fewer boards providing more processing power. The AESA array is inherently more reliable than a mechanically scanned antenna.
“There are no moving parts. You don’t have motors, slip rings. When you have motion, that creates reliability issues,” says Wagner. Estimates of three-to-five-times better reliability for the SABR radar depend on comparisons with the APG-68 and earlier APG-66, but the greater reliability of the new AESA radar can move the Air Force from common three-level maintenance schemes to just two levels — organizational and depot.
Fourth- and fifth-generation fighters naturally differ in available power, aperture size and cooling accommodations — all determinants of AESA radar range. However, Northrop Grumman is confident it can integrate the AESA advantages into the F-16. “We know how to do this; we’ve done it 13 times before,” says Wagner.
https://www.aviationtoday.com/2014/01/0 ... ng-the-16/
So only two LRUs but also a sizable liquid cooling ECS is installed in the radar compartment shown on the NG SABR video.
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Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland, has been awarded an $18,733,197 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00026) to contract FA8615-17-C-6047 for active electronically scanned array radars of Air Force F-16 aircraft. The contract modification is for definitization of the radio frequency target generator, additional support equipment and software development to support Phase Two. Work will be performed in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by April 2023. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $3,510,172; and fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $10,103,436 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $1,027,044,025. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
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16 OCTOBER 2020
The US Air Force (USAF) has declared the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) to be operational aboard the Air National Guard (ANG) fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft.
The milestone, announced by Northrop Grumman on 15 October, is the latest development in the USAF’s effort to replace the F-16’s mechanically scanned AN/APG-66 and AN/APG-68 radars with the latest active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology and marks the fulfilment of a US Northern Command Joint Emergent Operational Need (JEON) for homeland defence.
“SABR enables F-16 pilots to detect, track, identify, and target a greater number of threats faster and at longer ranges from outside the threat envelope,” said Mark Rossi, director of SABR programmes at Northrop Grumman. “This upgrade will keep the multirole F-16 fighter relevant and capable for decades to come.”
On 7 September the USAF began the installation of AN/APG-83 radars on ANG F-16s at Joe Foss Field in South Dakota: the fourth USAF base to receive AN/APG-83 upgrades.
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news ... -ang-f-16s
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New build F-15's, new AESA radars for F-16's, Block III Super Hornets...
Pretty extensive modernization across the board for US 4th gens, although you're seeing it in Russia/China too. The all stealth air force was probably never meant to be, despite what USAF was saying not that long ago. If you look at GWI, a little stealth went a long way, seemed that way anyway. I wonder though what's to become of F-16CJ units?
Presumably, F-35's will go about dismantling whatever IADS they encounter. And given the production planned, they'll be plenty of them. If they're doing that though, are F-16CJ's not redundant?
Pretty extensive modernization across the board for US 4th gens, although you're seeing it in Russia/China too. The all stealth air force was probably never meant to be, despite what USAF was saying not that long ago. If you look at GWI, a little stealth went a long way, seemed that way anyway. I wonder though what's to become of F-16CJ units?
Presumably, F-35's will go about dismantling whatever IADS they encounter. And given the production planned, they'll be plenty of them. If they're doing that though, are F-16CJ's not redundant?
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