It could be cool
Here, by the way, is an EJ200 with a casing, it could be implemented on every aircraft with an Ej200
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yeah its an upgrade for the regular EJs which is pretty cool. the whole aircraft is rather modular
Those EJ200’s also have a thrust increase up to around 27,000lbf iirc.
CAPTOR-M will be not that bad, rather it will be the best mechanical radar, I think.
CAPTOR-E is not our top priority.
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Currently TSG is working on the integration of the Taurus on the Eurofighter Typhoon, under a contract from Airbus and under the request from Germany and Spain. The plan is to have the system fully integrated on Eurofighter that will be submitted to Programme 4 Enhancement (P4E) that shall be available in 2028.
How’s it going Trench 2 upgrade program with CAPTOR-E radar?
2026
somehow it went from 2025 to 2026. the previous(november 2022) report stated 2025. the next one(maybe this month) might say something different.
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Surprised they’re only going with ECRS MK.1, but then again why use the best radar on the oldest airframes.
I wish the UK was upgrading our T1A’s instead of binning them with 15 years left.
Mk1 is likely going to be cheaper than Mk2. The German T4s(at least so far) will also come with the Mk1. I’m not sure when the Mk2 is supposed to enter service though allegedly there’s considerations for the T4s to come with Mk2 instead.
keeping T1s in service makes no sense. They do not have the newer computer systems that the T2s and later have which doesnt allow for the usage of Meteor and doesnt allow for upgrading to captor-e.
the cockpit is also different in that it lacks the laser arm switch for example and (maybe more importantly) doesnt support the same MIDS features that T2 and later have(you can actually see that there’s some parts missing in the MIDS panel)
How does it compare with the eurofighters old radar, i remember sth about people complaining about eurofighters radar being impractical because it only had PD mode and was at risk of nodging etc ? might have completly confused stuff as well
Thanks for the run-down.
I suppose the savings on not upgrading EF T1’s will be better spent on something like GCAP development for the UK.
like pretty much all modern radars it only has PD mode but it is regarded to be one of the best m-scan radars out there. every PD radar is notchable but I’d assume that with this one it’ll be quite hard to do so.
Actually, there are two versions of the M-scan CAPTOR, the CAPTOR-C and CAPTOR-M(initially CAPTOR-D). the -C has outdated signal processing computers which means that the ground mapping resolution for example is worse but likely also means that things like NCTR are less reliable. I am not sure how this would affect the radar in game.
Only Tranche 1 aircraft were fitted with the CAPTOR-C and there have been some efforts to upgrade them(like software updates) but I have no idea what exactly those change
That depends, it actually can’t be “notched” when locked on, the filter only applies to plots and not tracks, so once you lock someone the only way you lose lock is if the clutter overwhelms the target.
Do you know how it might compare to other radars of the early 2000’s?
Its going to be better than the PS/05 MK.3 because both are based on the BV radar but EF makes more power and the array is larger.
might be better than any other m-scan radar but will have some limitations compared to ESA radars. However those come with different downsides as well(like for example a range limitation at high off-boresight angles due to the geometry of the array)
My concept of PESA vs AESA is very amateur but would the M-scan of the EF be able to compare favourably against some early PESA’s seen on the SU-27 and Rafale?
probably comparable in terms of range, obviously slower in scan speed, better off boresight performance
definitely better signal processing than whatever the su-27 does just because its newer
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Su-27 doesn’t have PESA
it aint great(good). Basically its(N001) just a mig 29’s(N019) radar but slightly bigger and Cassegrain antenna, really subpar signal processing, no features to speak of( NCTR, SAR, chirp, SNIFF, ‘PSP’,etc). Sidelobe returns really affected them, as detection range drastically reduced if they flew low(sub 3Km) and target was below them. N001 and N019 had a hard MLC filter similar to the F-14. Turned off when antenna angle was above 3° and on when below it. On detection, the notch zone was ±210 km/h(113kt, 58m/s) for MPRF and HPRF. For tracking, HPRF min was ±180 km/h and MPRF ±150 km/h. Remember these are hard limits. Older radars like the APG63 and APG66 it was ±50kt(92 km/h) on detection AND they were SELECTABLE(but you risk false returns obviously). For tracking there’s none bc during tracking they make range-doppler matrices. You got range bins and doppler bins, target may be below you notching you but if he’s high enough his return will be on a different range bin than the ground return is. A range gate is made and thus track is kept. The range gate is lower on MPRF than HPRF.
I assume that the captor, being a newer and western radar has these features. Even the ADV’s radar got NCTR in the 90s.
PESA I don’t think its a big advantage as you can’t scan fast. You still need dwell time on target to detect it. Think of the 3prfs out of 8 for example in MPRF, if there’s enough SNR. But you can provide more frequent updates for TWS as beam is moved instantaneously and the azimuth/bars amount can be kept big.
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