Eurofighter Typhoon News
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AESA radar for Eurofighter flight tested
Joris Janssen Lok JDW Correspondent
Berlin
An active electronically scanned array ( AESA) radar designed to equip the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft for the four launch nations has successfully completed initial flight tests, EADS Defence Electronics said at the ILA 2006 air show in Berlin.
Flight trials in a real Typhoon are now anticipated to take place possibly later this year, depending on Eurofighter test aircraft availability.
The tests, held earlier this year using a BAC 111 flying testbed aircraft at Bournemouth, southern England, involved the prototype of a future electronically scanning Captor-E derivative of the mechanically scanning Captor radar that is currently in production for the Typhoon Tranche 2 aircraft, said Dr Elmar Compans, head of the company's sensors department.
The prototype is known as CAESAR (Captor AESA Radar) and features an array with a classified number (between 1,000-2,000) of transmit/receive (T/R) modules. Its diameter is slightly larger than the mechanically scanned antenna that is now on Captor.
CAESAR has been in development since April 2002 by the four-nation Euroradar consortium, which is led by Selex of the UK and includes EADS Defence & Security of Germany, Galileo Avionica of Italy and Indra in Spain.
"The concept for CAESAR was to take the existing Captor radar, replace its mechanically scanned antenna with the AESA array and to leave the whole of the back-end 'as is', with the exception of the antenna control unit and the antenna power supply unit," Compans said.
"All Eurofighter avionics also remain unchanged. In terms of the new array there are no weight or centre of gravity issues that the aircraft cannot deal with.
"We believe that this evolutionary approach toward introducing an AESA radar on board Typhoon is the only way that it will be affordable for the customers."
However, the proposed Captor-E is expected to be more expensive than the standard Captor-M, he admitted.
The flight tests involved seven missions, during which a total of 50 test runs were made, Compans said.
"The AESA array operated successfully for over 20 hours within one single T/R module failure," he said.
For the campaign, two aircraft - an Alpha Jet A jet trainer and a Hawker Siddeley 748 twin-turboprop aircraft - were available to fly co-operative target profiles.
"These targets were detected and tracked, including during crossing and weaving manoeuvres, while it was also possible to distinguish between them when they were flying in close formation," Compans said.
"Various targets of opportunity were also detected and tracked."
According to Compans, the CAESAR and CECAR (a bilateral German-UK electronically scanned radar risk-reduction study) have opened the door to full-scale development of the Captor-E radar for Typhoon Tranche 3, deliveries of which are scheduled to start in 2012.
"That means the radar deliveries are to start in 2011, and that means that there's less than six years left for development, industrialisation and production. We propose to use the existing back-end of the Captor as is used in Tranche 2, as this is basically e-scan ready.
"The next step now is to perform CAESAR flight tests on board a real Typhoon aircraft, the main goal being to check out the radar's features in relation to the overall weapons system. There is no date fixed for this yet but I would be disappointed if it does not take place during 2006," Compans said.
Euroradar completed deliveries of Captor radars for Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 1 at the beginning of 2006. The Tranche 1 version of Captor cannot be readily converted to an AESA radar because it features older, less capable processing technology.
The Tranche 2 Captor radar that is now in production has the latest processing equipment and features a high-resolution ground-mapping mode that is not available in Tranche 1.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2006/03/aesa-radar-to-be-trialed-on-uks-gr4-tornados-by-2007/index.php -
Saudi To Buy 72 Eurofighters for $58 Billion: Report
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LONDON
Britain will sign a deal with Saudi Arabia before the end of July to supply the kingdom with 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets in a deal worth far less than the expected price tag of 31 billion pounds (45.5 billion euros, $57.9 billion), a report said May 22.
”This is a good deal for Britain, but it is also an exceptionally good deal for Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source was quoted as saying by London’s free business daily City A.M.
BritainÂ’s Ministry of Defense had announced in December that the country was to supply Saudi Arabia with Typhoon jets, but did not disclose either the number of planes or cost of the deal.
But the figure of 31 billion pounds has been widely quoted in the media here.
According to City A.M. senior Saudi sources said the deal for 72 Typhoons, plus maintenance, spares, weapons and training until 2030, would be finalized before July 25.
The Typhoon Eurofighter, which is largely manufactured by defense and aerospace giant BAE Systems in partnership with other European countries, will replace the Tornado warplanes supplied to the Saudis in another massive and controversial deal two decades ago.
In December, Britain and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at establishing a greater partnership in modernizing the Saudi armed forces and developing close service-to-service contacts, especially through joint training and exercises.
BAE Systems signed a series of defense contracts with Saudi Arabia covering purchases and maintenance in the 1980s and 1990s, which are being probed by anti-corruption investigators. -
It will be cool if the RSAF's Typhoons are in the desert camo scheme (as those RSAF's IDS Tornados)!
Personally, I think the RSAF Typhoons will share the same grey camo scheme as the current Typhoon operators.
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lol, lets re-label them RoSAF(Royal Saudi Air Force) to avoid confusion with our local RSAF.
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E tornado r operating near ground hence e camo ,but EF-2000 is use 2 replace their F-3s which is using gray camo, but it will be nice 2 wonder how they look like in desert camo
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That's what I fear... Another dull-coloured looking TyphoonOriginally posted by spartan6:...but EF-2000 is use 2 replace their F-3s which is using gray camo...
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I think grey is sexy for fighter
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Saudi Arabia seem to be buying all the high profile weaponary with equally high cost but there is no reports of them being the top military in the Middle East. They have the M1A2 MBT, F-15S, Boeing E-3A Sentry and now Typhoons.
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actually their F-15S is the "downgraded" ver of F-15EOriginally posted by tankee1981:Saudi Arabia seem to be buying all the high profile weaponary with equally high cost but there is no reports of them being the top military in the Middle East. They have the M1A2 MBT, F-15S, Boeing E-3A Sentry and now Typhoons. -
UAE have F-16E/F, leclerc MBT, AMX-10 PAC90 etc they also has many high-tech wpn systems
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i like the black typhoons
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These Mid-East kingdoms have done their sums and know that its worth spending billions to protect their untapped trillions of oil.
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Eurofighter group proposes $5 bln work for Turkey's defense industry
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/...p?enewsid=44656
Eurofighter proposes Turkey final assembly, weapons system integration, parts manufacturing and maintenance tasks for over 400 aircraft. The proposal matches rival JSF groupÂ’s local work offer of over $4 billion
Florence/Grosseto, Italy – TDN Defense Desk
The four-nation, European Eurofighter consortium that builds the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet has proposed a $5 billion industrial participation program to Turkey, a deal that will take effect if Ankara decides to become the group's fifth partner.
Giovanni Bertolone, chief executive officer for Alenia Aeronautica, the Italian partners of the Eurofighter group that promotes the fighter in Turkey, said that the proposal involves the final assembly of the entire program beginning with the manufacture of aircraft for Turkey. An Alenia official said that the assembly work would involve about 100 aircraft for the Turkish Air Force plus over 300 aircraft the Eurofighter group hopes to sell to other buyers.
The work will also involve the integration of weapons systems, production of parts including carbon fiber as well as maintenance and support for the fighter jets.
�This is a comprehensive proposal presently in the process of deep discussions (with the Turkish authorities),� Bertolone told reporters in Florence. �Our impression is that the SSM [Turkey's defense procurement office] are favorable to this industrial participation proposal.�
If it went ahead, Bertolone said, the proposal will allow the Turkish Air Force to gain �operational independence� -- the ability to autonomously maintain its fighter fleet. �It is our opinion that Turkey's local industry is well-developed, and prepared for ambitious hi-tech tasks,� Bertolone said. �Turkey qualifies to emerge as the operational support center for the Typhoon.�
He said if Turkey became the group's fifth partner, it would be tasked with promoting the fighter in �countries with which it has friendly relations,� like Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. �The Eurofighter consortium believes that Turkey, with its advanced aviation industry, fulfils all the requirements to become a partner of the group,� Bertolone said. Partnership in the group, he said, would mean having access to source codes and other critical technology.
Asked if he agreed that Ankara would be discouraged from joining the European partnership if Turkey faced major problems in its accession talks with the European Union later this year, Bertolone said that although political unity was one of the essential ingredients of the idea to build a European fighter, �politics should not mask the industrial, military and technological benefits of the program.� �Let's be optimistic,� he said. �Europe's history is full of examples that illustrate political unity went parallel to cooperation in aviation.�
Earlier this year, Turkey launched a competition for the procurement of 120 new generation fighters. Recently, Eurofighter's cross-Atlantic rival in the contest, the multinational Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) group led by Lockheed Martin -- the world's biggest defense firm -- that builds the F-35, proposed a package of over $4 billion for Turkey's defense industry.
Turkey is a partner of the JSF group, and has invested $175 million for its development phase. Turkey's top procurement officials have repeatedly said that Turkey will either choose between the F-35 and the Typhoon, or go for a combination of both aircraft to meet its future fighter/strike requirements. For example, Murad Bayar, Turkey's chief procurement official, has said that by the end of 2006 Turkey will decide �whether to go for the F-35 only, the Eurofighter only, or both.�
Defense analysts view the F-35 as a �perfect striker,� a �future� aircraft designed for mainly air-to-ground missions, and the Typhoon as a solid fighter for mainly air-to-air missions. �Ideally, a country should possess both aircraft if, of course, it has the means to afford them from both a procurement and a maintenance point of view,� a Rome-based defense analyst said. �I am not sure if Turkey's finances are strong enough to support this idea.� Britain and Italy have decided to keep both aircraft in their fleet.
Last December, the Typhoon became fully operational in the Italian Air Force and has so far gone through over 1,600 flying hours. The first Typhoon had arrived in Italy's Grosseto air base in April 2005.
A demo flight at the Grosseto base showed that the Typhoon is up and running and defending Italian skies. The Typhoon fleet at Grosseto is ready to take to the air in 15 minutes around the clock. The aircraft are used for air defense, surveillance, training and reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The aircraft will soon be deployed for NATO-led missions in Afghanistan.
The Eurofighter program's first tranche foresees the manufacturing of 142 aircraft for its four partners: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. Its second tranche will cover 236 aircraft for the partner nations plus 18 aircraft for Austria. Recently, the Eurofighter consortium penned a deal with Saudi Arabia for the sale of an unknown number of the Typhoon -- industry sources say the deal involves around 100 aircraft.
Eurofighter officials say if Turkey joined the partnership earliest deliveries for the Turkish Air Force could be scheduled for 2010. Analysts say deliveries under the JSF program would not begin before 2014.
�The Typhoon could be a multi-purpose move for the Turks,� the same defense analyst said. �It can be a stop-gap solution, boost the local industry and complete the F-35 for a fully deterrent air force.�
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