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The article presents information on the recent addition of products based on weather radar technology, to be used in the aviation industry. Aerospace company, Rockwell Collins and Honeywell Inc. have introduced some new ranges in this group. Rockwell Collins's WXR-2100 multi-scan radar for the Boeing 787 and Honeywell's RDR-4000 flying on the Airbus A380 are capable of tracking storms automatically.

Presents information about radars and sensors used in navigation. Details of configuration of radars and sensors; Types of aircraft on which radars and sensors are applicable.

The article reports that as interest in ADS-B heats up around the world, aviation company Thales is upgrading its Eurocat system to handle this new type of surveillance in Australia nationwide, giving the French company a potential edge over competitors. ADS-B.0 is a surveillance system that broadcasts an aircraft's GPS-derived location to a receiver on the ground. A network of 28 ADS-B ground stations being installed by Thales in Australia will provide tracking capability in vast areas where there is currently no radar capability.

The article reports that F-15C fighter pilots of the 12th and 19th squadrons are flying the radar of the future. It uses sensor technology that is to be operational on the F/A-22 Raptor, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and upgraded F-15E Strike Eagle. The radar's performance numbers are classified, but the new Raytheon APG-63(V)2 radars, the first that are operational with active electronically scanned arrays, can see a small cruise missile or an airframe with stealth shaping at around 50 minutes, the distance at which the standard F-15C radar would see a manned-fighter target. The subscale, cruise missile-like targets that pilots practice against are 12-14 ft. long while an Su-27 is about 72 ft. long and a MiG-29, 57 ft.

The article evaluates several products defense including the Giraffe 4A and 8A radars from Saab, and TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar from Northrop Grumman.

This article reports that the British Defense Ministry will fly a near-production-standard active electronically scanned array radar on a Tornado GR4 strike aircraft in 2007. The Project Advanced Radar Targeting System is intended to explore the use of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar in the air-to-surface role. Beyond offering a potential upgrade path for the GR4, and a useful research tool for AESA development, the program is one of a number of efforts within the European radar community to sustain a competency at least on a par with the U.S.

The article reports that the next-generation radar being developed for the E-10 surveillance aircraft is designed to detect small, even stealthy, objects--in particular, cruise missiles--at long distances and cue specially equipped F-15s and F/A-22s about where to find and attack them. That alone keeps much of the system's development under wraps. At the moment, program officials say they are only interested in the synthetic aperture radar mapping, ground moving target indicator and air moving target indicator modes, and that the project is currently under budget and ahead of schedule by 2-3%.

The article reports that the launch and orbital checkout of a $1-billion, 15-ton Lockheed Martin/National Reconnaissance Office Lacrosse/Onyx imaging radar spacecraft begin a transition of secret NRO operations toward new or highly upgraded satellites flown on a range of new launchers. During the next 12 months, NRO is to launch five additional secret payloads, all of them with upgraded systems or major design and launcher changes from past NRO flights. NRO mission surge will have a launcher and spacecraft value for next year alone of $3-5 billion spread across a diverse contractor base

The article informs that first deliveries are being made of a new, secrecy-shrouded radar that soon will be carried by U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. Raytheon officials say they delivered the first low-rate initial production (LRIP) radar to Boeing a week ahead of schedule. They expect to build at least 415 of these radars for Boeing that will kick off a bifurcated program to equip new-production aircraft and to reequip in 2007-10 the 123 F/A-18E/Fs that are already flying with the Navy using less advanced radars. There are also at least two reference points to the radar's acuity, which appears from imagery to be in the 6-12-in.

This article focuses on benefits of weather radars in aeroplanes. The job of avoiding thunderstorms is getting easier in airline cockpits thanks to a new type of radar that automatically optimizes weather returns and then eliminates ground returns so that only convective cells ahead are displayed. The Rockwell Collins WXR-2100 is called a" multi-scan" radar because it transmits two different beams, slightly offset vertically, instead of the single beam usually used. The WXR-2100 is now certified on all Boeing aircraft in production and should be certified on Airbus transports sometime this year or early in 2005.

Small airports in mountainous terrain with no radar coverage may follow the lead of Innsbruck, Austria, which plans to use "multilateration" this fall to allow air traffic controllers to track aircraft in the vicinity of the airport. Multilateration is a technique employing ground-based sensors to triangulate aircraft position by comparing the time of arrival of pulses from the aircraft's transponder. In the U.S., it's also known as multistatic dependent surveillance. Pilots require special training before flying into Innsbruck because the approach uses an offset from the instrument landing system, which is not directly on the runway, according to Heinz Bartacek, director of air traffic management engineering at Austro Control, the Austrian air navigation service provider. .

The article reports on the plan of Thales to set up a facility in Saudi Arabia to support its BOR-A and Squire ground surveillance radars, which have been chosen for several Saudi applications. According to the article, the facility will also offer technical support, maintenance, training and final assembly.

The article reports on the decision of the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration to extend cooperative work between Italy-based Selex Sistemi Integrati, Elettronica and Saab on multi-function active electronically scanned array technology. The new contract, covering the project's second phase, is aimed at defining the system's capability to perform radar, electronic warfare and communication tasks simultaneously.

The article reports on the launching of Japan's second of two optical reconnaissance satellites on board an H-IIA booster from the Tanegashima Space Center. The optical reconnaissance satellites improve the center's surveillance capacity for watching North Korean missile programs. Development of a four-satellite recce program, with two optical and two radar spacecraft, has been a major drive of the country's space program, consuming about a third of its development budget in recent years.

The article presents information on a new electronically scanned radar that can make precision strikes on ground targets and shoot down rapidly maneuvering aerial targets. An unspoken subtext to the ongoing series of experiments in the U.S. being conducted by a Boeing Co./Raytheon Co. team is that the new APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar can find very small, even stealthy, cruise missiles and successfully attack them with an AIM-120 Amraam. The AESA radar is designed to answer that need as a communications device.

The article informs that Israel's long-range, Green Pine radar, used to find targets for the Arrow 2 air defense missile, is being upgraded and doubled in power, possibly making it a candidate for conversion into a directed-energy weapon for use against Iranian and Syrian threats. A Pentagon radar specialist says the potential for the array would probably not be in ballistic missile defense, because warheads are so well shielded. Meanwhile, Israelis acknowledge they are tracking U.S. efforts to demonstrate anti-missile weapons using high-power microwave arrays and focused radar beams.

This article reports that top U.S. Air Force officers have recently begun to discuss potential weapons effects of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, although scientists have been quietly studying the concept. Before leaving office this summer, then-U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General John Jumper acknowledged the service had been experimenting with the weapons effects of radars, although he provided little detail. AESA radars consist of a grid of transmit-and-receive modules operating in X-band frequencies. Normally, each T/R module would function independently to collect a return on a target. However, if an array of modules is focused on a single target, directing the radar energy, the effect can be destructive.

This article reports that Singapore's decision to select Boeing's F-15T for its next fighter puts the island state firmly in the U.S. camp for its combat aircraft, and also bolsters the interdiction fighter's production line long after it was thought dead. The F-15T prevailed over the Dassault Rafale in a competition that began with six different fighter types. It's the latest major export order for an F-15E version, after South Korea opted for the aircraft several years ago. The Singaporean F-15T will be the most modern standard. The aircraft are likely to be fitted with an active electronically scanned array version of the APG-63 radar. Northrop Grumman Corp. will supply a version of the AN/ALQ-135 electronic warfare system. It has been upgraded with microwave power module transmitter technology to increase power and reduce weight.

This article presents information related to technical aspects of Cosmo-SkyMed radar surveillance satellite network. A final contract for the Cosmo-SkyMed radar surveillance satellite network will ensure full system operability by 2008 provided additional funding becomes available. The 775-million-euro ($ 1.05-billion) award, signed last month by Italian space agency ASI, covers the first three satellites in the four-satellite system, plus long-lead items for the final vehicle. Funds to complete the fourth, beyond the initial 116-million-euro outlay, must await resolution of a budget crisis within the defense ministry, which is co-financing the dual-use system.

This article reports that the Tarsier Radar System by QinetiQ PLC was first announced at the Maastricht air traffic control conference this year, and has been in test at major airports in North America and Europe. This enhanced foreign object debris detector was an indirect result of the July 2000 Air France Concorde accident at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. In a fitting tribute to the spur that drove the development. Based on a millimeter-wave radio operating at high frequencies, the system runs in all weather conditions and at night. Earlier in the year a trial of the system was completed at Vancouver International Airport.

This article reports that Rockwell Collins Inc.'s WXR-2100 MultiScan weather radar automatically adjusts weather detection parameters for variations caused by time of day, time of year and geographic position and then uses advanced radar threshold technologies to adjust the radar returns to more accurately display actual storm threats. It is the first weather radar with fully automatic operation, although pilots have the option to manually operate system. WXR-2100's computer processor is to form the cornerstone of Rockwell Collins' new Integrated Surveillance System, which will combine the weather radar, TCAS EGP-WS collision and ground avoidance, and Mode S and ADS-B reporting functions in one avionics box presented on a combined display. Shared processing will reduce volume and weight of the systems, increasing reliability and reducing the cost of ownership, according to Bryan Vester, senior director of marketing and strategic management for Rockwell Collins Commercial Systems. The radar beam is pointed down into the most reflective part of a storm cell at or below the freezing level, site of all of the rainfall, and is able to do this because ground clutter picked up this way can be removed, leaving only the storm cells on the display.

This article reports that Swedish developers are devising a massive electronic warfare (EW) enhancement for the JAS 39 Gripen that would give the multirole fighter a fully integrated defensive system usually associated with new-build aircraft. Flight testing of the basic equipment has already begun, and equipment developer Ericsson expects that, barring funding cuts, production-ready hardware should be available around 2009. But that doesn't mean the gear will find its way onto Gripen, particularly given Sweden's austere defense budget. While not traditionally a supplier of airborne electronic warfare equipment, Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, hopes to use its heritage in radar development and apply the relevant technology to EW. Besides the EW effort, called the Multi-function Integrated Defensive Information System, the company is working on enhancing Gripen's radar — both the mechanically scanned version and in building a new active electronically scanned array model.

The article reports that Eurofighter Typhoon partner nations are investigating exploiting an enhanced synthetic aperture radar capability to provide submetric-resolution air-to-surface targeting data, and identification, at ranges in excess of 50 minutes. An improved SAR mode for the ECR-90/Captor radar will be introduced in the Tranche 2 standard for the aircraft. A priority for Tranche 2 irrespective of British government-industry politicking over final inking of the production contract is to quickly introduce and expand the Typhoon's latent air-to-surface capability. The deal, covering 236 aircraft, is now likely to be signed by Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain by November.

This article focuses on developing nanomaterials and advanced components in India. V.K. Aatre, outgoing chief of India's Defense Research and Development Organization, says R & D will require partners. India and Israel, a likely choice, are already collaborating on development of various weapons systems. Israel Space Agency and Indian Space Research Organization held preliminary talks last year on development of micro-satellites by combining assets and jointly developing payloads. Israel's space program has a strong focus on imaging systems in various wave lengths for use in mapping and radar photography.

This article presents information on developments in aircraft industry. Northrop Grumman is working with the U.S. Air Force to fuse data from a variety of sensors as a basis for collision-avoidance systems for unmanned aerial vehicles. The concept is to create an autonomous "see and avoid" system that would permit Unmanned Air Vehicles and manned aircraft to operate safely in the same airspace. Work under this contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, aims to verify, through simulation, a sensing architecture designed under a previous award.

Calpro, a processing system by Vexcel Corp. to calibrate synthetic aperture radar images, was developed under a 2003 contract from Japan's JGI to calibrate images collected by Palsar, its SAR sensor on board the Advanced Land-Observing Satellite. The processor was installed earlier in the year at the Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center, JGI's initial customer for the system. Vexcel's processor also supports Radarsat and Envisat-ASAR. SAR images that are only relatively calibrated exhibit pixel values correct in relation to each other, but with incorrect physical values when compared with radar backscatter.

The commercial off-the-shelf Hawkeye single-slot VME radar acquisition and scan converter is used for airborne command and control consoles, air traffic control and air defense systems. The 6U VME module has a main board and two PMC cards providing scan conversion and radar acquisition capability in a single slot. Radar video may also be received over a network connection using built-in 10/100 Base-T networks. The low-power Hawkeye card can receive and digitize radar video from many supported radar types, including: ACP/ARP, RADDS and ASDE-3, and supports multiple-scan conversion windows on a single high-res (up to 1600 X 1200) display.