LONDON – Typhoon added its name to the list of fighters able to offer active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar capability last week when the four European partner nations in the program finally put their signature to an £800 million (US $1.25 billion) deal to develop and integrate the sensor.
Executives here say the development program will add momentum to an effort to export the plane, which has been hampered by the British, German, Italian and Spanish governments' previous failure to commit to the radar technology with a development and integration contract.
The partner nations, along with the Eurofighter and Euroradar industry consortium members, announced the deal on Nov. 19, following a meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is where lead radar company Selex ES develops the radar.
A spokesman for the British Defence Ministry said the development is expected to "deliver capability to customers by the end of the decade."
A test aircraft was fitted with the radar this year and flights with the sensor powered up are scheduled to start around May.
Further contracts will be required by the individual nations to actually build and fit the new radar.
"The contract is for development of the radar and the aircraft integration solution," the spokesman said. "There will be a separate contract for the production and embodiment of the radar for each customer."
Eurofighter's Typhoon is the last of the front-line Western fighters to get the technology, which has become a must-have for air forces in the Arabian Gulf and Asia regions in the market for top-line combat jets.
Richard Aboulafia, the vice president of analysis at the Teal Group, said the move to equip Typhoon with a new radar is welcome, but pointed out the aircraft is playing catch-up on its rivals — not taking the lead.
"Remedying the fact Typhoon is the last of the current generation of fighter to get an AESA is good, but that's the removal of a negative, not the addition of a positive," he said. "The plane is still too expensive for most customers, and that high-end market is increasingly waiting for the F-35."
Rivals such as Boeing, Dassault Aviation and Lockheed Martin all have operational AESA-equipped aircraft available to export customers.
Saab has a contract with Selex to supply the Raven ES-05 AESA for the Gripen NG and has been test flying a production standard radar on a demonstrator aircraft for some time ahead of deliveries to the Swedish and Brazilian air forces, which have already ordered the latest variant of the jet.
AESA radars offer increased detection and tracking ranges, advanced air-to-air capability and enhanced electronic protection compared with mechanical radars.
Joe Parker, the Eurofighter export director, said the radar, known as Captor E-Scan, will make a big difference to Typhoon sales prospects.
"The integration of Captor E-Scan radar is without doubt a game changer, and has a high level of interest from prospective customers," the Eurofighter executive said.
Bahrain, Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar and a possible top-up order from Saudi Arabia are some of the short- to medium-term opportunities for the Eurofighter industry consortium.
Even the possibility of getting back in the competition to supply India with multirole jet was raised by British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon on a recent visit to New Delhi when he publicly voiced Eurofighter's readiness to re-enter the competition if negotiations to buy the French Dassault Rafale did not progress.
The Rafale was selected as the winner of the competition in 2012, but Dassault has not yet sealed the deal — leaving the Eurofighter nations hoping there might yet be a way back to the negotiating table with a revised bid.
"If making an AESA available on Typhoon helps Airbus and BAE pry the Indian contract away from the Rafale, that would be an impressive achievement," Aboulafia said.
Beyond the British MoD's statement that the capability will be available by the end of the decade, program officials are offering little about operational timelines, beyond saying it will meet the time-scales required by users and potential export customers
"The new radar will be available to satisfy the operational requirements and timings of all the air forces that are operating Typhoon as well as future export customers currently evaluating the aircraft," a Eurofighter spokesman said.
Aside from the four Eurofighter core partners, Typhoon is also operated by Austria and Saudi Arabia and has been purchased by Oman.
The AESA deal is one of several capability hikes underway on Typhoon. These include the integration of MBDA's Meteor beyond-visual-range, air-to-air missile and the Storm Shadow cruise missile
Eurofighter, along with Dassault and Boeing, are all scrambling to secure the export orders needed to ensure their fighter production lines stay open into the next decade.
Airbus Defence and Space, along with BAE Systems and Finmeccanica, make up the Eurofighter partners. Finmeccanica's Selex ES along with Airbus and others are involved in the Euroradar consortium.
BAE, which is leading the AESA integration effort, said the contract is worth £365 million to the company. Finmeccanica said its share of the deal was valued at around £310 million. Airbus declined to comment.
The contract involves development of a base standard known as Radar 1+, but some nations, principally the British, have been investing in additional capabilities, such as electronic attack, for several years.
Selex secured a £21 million technology demonstrator program known as Project Bright Adder from the British several years ago, and the government announced at the Farnborough International Airshow in July that it was investing a further £72 million in an extended assessment phase risk-reduction program.
The MoD spokesman said the four-nation program will "provide the information that we need to provide the foundation of the advanced AESA capability required by the Royal Air Force."
Unlike its French and US rivals, Selex ES has taken a different technology approach to development of its AESA using an antenna that tilts rather than one that is fixed.
The ability to move the antenna considerably widens the radar's field of view. Saab's Raven radar uses technology similar to that of the Typhoon but has a smaller antenna compared with the Eurofighter jet. ■
Email: achuter@defensenews.com.
