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A couple of blurbs within an article about AESA RADARs left me wondering just what the extreme range of AMRAAM really is. Scroll down to the highlighted part if you dont want to read the whole thing.
Network-Centric Warfare
Innovations Cluster Around F/A-18E/Fs New Radar
Aviation Week & Space Technology
05/31/2004, page 54
David A. Fulghum
China Lake and El Segundo, Calif.
Innovations cluster around performance of F/A-18E/F's new, electronically steered radar
Net Changes
At the leading edge of the network-centric constellation is an array of new-generation sensors that jump-start the whole system by providing a more detailed view of the battlefield and seeking out key targets.
For the moment, the crown jewel in that collection of sensors is the active electronically scanned aperture (AESA) radar that is being installed on a wide range of aircraft. Each AESA radar--more powerful and acute by far than its predecessors--is made up of at least scores, sometimes thousands, of individual transmitter/receivers (T/R), that are sometimes as little as a half-inch square and a quarter-inch deep. These T/R modules are used like the keyboard of a piano to produce combinations of simultaneous uses such as searching for new targets, tracking, making key identifications or jamming the targets' sensors with electronic noise.
By focusing the radar's output power in a limited area of the sky with a small number of its total modules, the radar can extend its detection range. In fact, for the first time, U.S. fighter aircraft will have a radar that can locate targets beyond the range of its Aim-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air (Amraam) missiles which allow critical additional time for tactical maneuvering.
Because the radar can also gather the detail to confirm the identity of targets at long distance, and thereby meet strict criteria for rules of engagement, the U.S. now has the operational ability to destroy enemy aircraft at distances beyond the visual range of the aircrew.
AESA radars on upgraded F-15Cs, the latest F/A-18E/Fs and the F/A-22 will be paired with a new version of the Aim-130 air-to-air missiles to form the first lines of defense against small, even stealthy, low-flying cruise missiles.
Moreover, those same basic AESA T/R modules are expected to one day form the arrays for space-based radars that will begin service by sending alerts to command-and-control aircraft about moving objects like the enemy's mobile missiles or low-flying missiles and aircraft.
Finally, AESA-equipped unmanned combat aircraft are eventually expected to help directly in the fight against combat cruise missiles, according to Pentagon officials. The mission is deemed a first step in developing the UCAV's air-to-air combat capabilities since cruise missiles maneuver very little and thus would be a somewhat easier target.
However, talk of cruise missile defense intertwined with unmanned aircraft operations leaps far ahead of today's program. Right now, the Navy's F/A-18 officials are looking toward 2008-09 as a seminal period when the various services start interoperating as easily as they operate within a service or warfighting community.
The modified radome for the new AESA radar simply slides forward since the radar antenna will seldom, if ever, have to be repaired or replaced. Credit: U.S. NAVY
Only this month the F/A-18/EA-18G program manager, Capt. Donald Gaddis, opened meetings at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, with the Air Force's B-1 and F-15 (many AESA-radar equipped) program managers to begin looking at joint test and evaluation and operational testing among all three communities. The initiative follows closely some groundbreaking work with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (AESA-equipped) that would also foster early operational linkages between the aircraft with an eye to developing cooperative warfighting techniques.
As a major driver in the aggressive pursuit of cross-service contacts, top Navy officials have identified the ability of the services to readily exchange information as the toughest nut to crack in making network-centric warfare work.
"The challenging part is going to be the test and evaluation and joint experimentation," Gaddis says. "When you start talking about trying to link platforms together through communications devices like the Joint Tactical Radio System or Link 16 or variable message format, it's tremendously hard because everybody interprets the standards and protocols a little differently. You find that out in flight tests. Information isn't passed like you wanted or it takes way too long. We look at the tapes and find out that the 1s and 0s aren't lining up and we're not communicating. Technically, it's probably more challenging than anything we've done before."
THE F/A-18E/F RADAR program at the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center will begin a new round of testing with three AESA systems beginning in June. The flight test community there has been told to develop a test plan that involves going to Ft. Bragg, N.C., to talk to the Special Operations Forces, NAS Fallon, Nev., the Navy strike community's home, and Eglin AFB, Fla., where the Air Force's munitions are developed and tested. Researchers also will be expected to develop and exercise links with command ships to demonstrate what information the F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs can provide.
"I'm trying to hammer away at other aircraft platforms, data link and avionics program managers to form this group that would allow us to [shape] lower-level detailed test plans to get us from today to 2008-09" when joint testing is officially scheduled to begin, Gaddis says. Analysts applaud Gaddis' effort and note that while virtually everybody recognizes the looming problem, many are counting on someone else to somehow resolve it before cross-service testing begins.
"We've had an ongoing working group inside Navair for the last 11 months," he says. "What we've done now is expand that to make contact with the JSF and F-15 folks. My hope is that the contact expands in its scope to talk about joint test and evaluation and experimentation and to form working groups to review standards, architectures and protocols."
The test team at China Lake is scheduling 12 flights per aircraft each month. The results will be fed back to a group of operators charged by the Navy to develop a concept of operations and tactics for the APG-79 AESA-equipped F/A-18E/Fs. Current priorities include standoff attack (hence the need for the new synthetic aperture radar mapping mode) and survivability enhancements that would allow such attack profiles.
The F/A-18E/F's first radar was protected by a radome that had to be swung to the side for maintenance. In cramped spaces on aircraft carriers, it was often damaged.Credit: U.S. NAVY
In addition, "We've asked for the Air Force's help," says Stu Johnson, AESA acquisition lead for the F/A-18 advanced weapons laboratory. "F/A-22 and F-15 AESA are many years ahead of us. We're looking at what they did in testing this technology. We went to Elmendorf [AFB, Alaska, where modified F-15Cs are based] a year ago. After talking to the F-15 guys, we did some reprioritizing. We realized we wanted more operator control [instead of some automated functions]. We simply didn't have the functions in place to give the operator direct control in changing, for example, from air-to-ground targets to air-to-air targets that are beyond visual range. The radar gives you a lot of flexibility in how the pilot can split his time between different tasks."
There are several key questions the test team will be seeking to answer:
*What new tactics could develop now that targets can be detected at twice the old radar range?
*How does a two- or four-ship formation split up the air-to-air and air-to-ground tasks?
*How might a single AESA-equipped aircraft increase the offensive power of a large group of non-AESA aircraft?
In addition to new AESA air-to-air and ground-attack radar capabilities, the F/A-18E/Fs will carry advanced infrared, electro-optical and electronic surveillance sensors.
"Part of our net-centric effort is to determine how all this ties into the network," says Tom Kennedy, vice president for Raytheon's unmanned and reconnaissance systems. "One key thing is that we have some very advanced communications--something called Fibre Channel--within the jet. This supports a very high bandwidth exchange of data between the sensors on board. Each of those sensors has its own IP (Internet Protocol) address for a tie-in to the weapons. The next step is to tie that into the information grid. You don't want to keep all that information on the jet."
ONCE MANNED aircraft have been tuned to exchange data with ease, a subsequent step would be to fold unmanned aircraft and rotorcraft into the net-centric construct. Based on the losses and damage inflicted on manned helicopters during the most recent conflict in Iraq, fielding a survivable unmanned attack aircraft is moving up in the Pentagon's priority.
"How does a soldier on the ground with a hand-held device get that unmanned helicopter to fly over the next hill and gather imagery or drop [weapons]?" Kennedy said. "He may not know which [unmanned helicopter] he's talking to. Most likely he won't. Why would the guy in the foxhole, while being shot at, have to be overwhelmed with picking out [unmanned helicopter] No. 6 or J-UCAS [unmanned strike aircraft] No. 9 to go do imagery?" He doesn't care. He just wants the weapon on target. He doesn't have to be involved in how it gets there." That's the role of the net-centric system.
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