I am somewhat surprised they didn’t use CAESAR as an interim given they could literally just attach it to the CAPTOR-M mounting and it worked relatively flawlessly as far as prototypes go.
its made to be that way. theres the 55mm ones for eurofighter and tornado
and the 218 variant for 2" by 1" by 8" flare or chaff launchesr like those found on the gripen, f-16, f-18, f-15, basically any other western jet lol.
they’re entirely self contained. you just tell it to launch (like you would a flare) and it does its thing.
however you can choose to use a modified launcher to add a datalink to the aircraft’s ESM systems
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To be fair - it was quite a while before they’d got a reliable AESA package for a fighter. The first actual operational jet with it would’ve been F-2 (early 2000s).
You either delay the (already delayed EFT) program or as @Flame2512 points out - you make probably one of the best non-AESA radars you can with the option to upgrade later on.
i think modern day ALE-47 launchers paired with AN/ALQ-250 EPAWSS (very new ECM suite) on strike eagle/EX should be able to interface with it no?
wdym “reliable”
one of the biggest advantages of AESA is increased reliabilty over M-scan, i believe they even say this in the document
a big issue, at least at first, was full scale production of T/R modules which is what the paper is about
You’re forgetting the F-22 programme was more than 3 times as expensive to develop compared to the Eurofighter programme. I think thats something often very overlooked, is that you are comparing the wrong aircraft.
For example a very good M-Scan could well have been a smoother experience and better starting point than a prototype AESA that could have been problematic for example J/APG-1 which is on a country with a budget closer to the UK’s was far from flawless upon service entry, and if you factored in CAESAR in ~2008 its not too far behind.
Though I of course accept that it was not in service and it is a very real detriment as many, including MIg, have pointed out very rightly, but that’s not from a lack of ability to produce AESA but a lack of funds to fund it. Also consider that CAESAR was a very good array for its year but the EFT programme wanted to take advantage of a gimbal in this respect.
F-35 will get that, idk about EPAWSS.
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remember the 18 F-15C equipped with AN/APG-63v2 AESA radar, in service about a month after the F-2 funny enough? i really doubt THAT was geting the F-22 budget
Maybe ‘reliable’ was the wrong word. ‘Viable’.
If it was easy - everyone would’ve had AESAs fitted decades before.
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”
innovation isn’t easy, but it must be done to progress and maintain the technological edge
Yes the singular squadron that got AESA.
You’re ignoring that once you have developed an AESA you can develop many similar systems, such an expense was deemed realistic for F-22 programme but that would obviously have a crossover into developing AESA’s for things like the Arleigh Burke’s, or the F-15’s APG-63V2 or AWACS.
The F-22 was a justification that provided what is in most other countries terms a literally bottomless budget.
…yeah - but you still have to fund the thing. Remember this was at a time when the USSR had blown itself up and govts all over the place were looking at their defence budgets and going ‘do we REALLY need to spend all this stuff?’
You cut your cloth accordingly. I think Typhoon was one of the few multi-national projects that worked and delivered - no mean feat in the immediate post-Cold-War.
I wonder if the EFT’s internal dispensers have such wiring possible.
Not even that but when EFT was being re-conceptualised and developed in the late 80’s they fully expected the Cold War to go hot and the fight to have to be fought with Phantoms and Tornado ADV’s. You can very clearly see why they’d opt for a risk reduction.
Would you rather have a great M-scan or the equivalent of the F.2 tornados concrete radar.
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Depends - Blue Circle was immune to jamming!
what about the PAVE PAWS system in 1978? or MiG-31 radar? face it, europe was behind again by the time the first EFT testbeds flew in 1994
The MSD-2000 & ECR-90 had been under development since the mid-1980s. The decision on which one to use was meant to be made in 1988 IIRC, but thanks to the Germans refusing to accept the ECR-90 despite every other nation wanting it, the decision got pushed back to late-1990.
An AESA radar was not a sensible choice for Eurofighter at the time. It was originally meant to enter service in the mid to late 1990s, and as we know no-one managed to get an AESA radar into service until the early 2000s. So they were correct in their judgement that it was not practical to develop an AESA radar in time for a late 90s in service date. It made sense at the time to develop a best in class mechanical radar, and then upgrade to AESA once technology had matured.
Plus as I said there was not a hope in hell that Germany would have ever entertained the thought of an AESA radar.
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thats a fair point regarding germany, and timing, but either way EFT ended up going into service about 3 years after the first operational AESA fighters
Damn Germans :P
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They probably regularly think ‘Verdammt Britischers’.
It’s all good.
I mean, they even took a bit of an issue with calling it Typhoon - what with the whole rocketing WW2 thing…