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The resulting
Captor-E was a minimum change version of the M-Scan Captor radar, combining the existing Captor back end with a new AESA antenna, mounted on a dual swashplate repositioner. The
first production variant of this new AESA radar was known as
Radar One Plus or ECRS Mk 0, and was developed primarily to meet the requirements of Kuwait and Qatar.
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Hensoldt was awarded a €1.5 Bn contract by Airbus Defence and Space to develop and produce a new
ECRS Mk 1 AESA radar for the German and Spanish Eurofighter fleets. The ECRS Mk 1 is a development of the Kuwait/Qatar standard Mk 0, and will be produced by
retrofitting Mk 0 radars with a new digital multi-channel receiver and new transmitter/receiver modules developed by Hensoldt.
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The new British radar, known as
ECRS Mk 2, is designed to ensure that Typhoon will be able to operate in the most challenging contested environments, on its own, and autonomously. The new radar allows potential export customers to operate a single platform Typhoon fleet even in the most challenging contested environments.
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ECRS Mk 2 promises to allow the Typhoon to enhance the RAF’s F-35 force – not merely carrying additional weapons to the fight, but bringing its own advanced capabilities that improve the F-35’s survivability and effectiveness. A Typhoon equipped with ECRS Mk 2 will be a
very survivable platform, so while the enemy may know that the aircraft is ‘in the area’, it will be able to operate as what one programme insider described as a
‘brute squad’, its pilot not having to worry about his signature, able to carry vast numbers of weapons and
“raining down electronic attack and the world’s supply of SPEAR Capability III or SDBs or whatever weapon you want to use, while the fifth gen aircraft is acting as a silent assassin, sliding around the back to slip the knife in!”
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Though designated as the
ECRS Mk 2, (European Common Radar System Mk 2), the new UK radar has
little in common with previous Euroradar AESA radars, despite sharing the same ECRS designation prefix. The ECRS Mk 0 AESA radar fitted to Kuwaiti and Qatari Typhoons, and the ECRS Mk 1 radar which is being developed for the German/Spanish retrofit programme are derivatives of the mechanically scanned (M-Scan) Captor-C, using much the
same back-end, but married to a new AESA array with an innovative double swashplate repositioner. They are collectively known as Captor-E variants.
The ECRS Mk 2 radar does share a
common interface with the platform and weapons system, via the German supplied attack computer, and uses the
same power generation and cooling, but is not based on Captor technology, instead using a completely new open-architecture radar ‘back end’. From the power supply forward the new radar uses
completely new hardware, including what is referred to as a “revolutionary” Multi-Function Array. This will allow the radar to provide traditional air-to-air and air-to-ground, search, track and targeting functions as well as new electronic warfare (EW) and wide-band electronic attack (EA) capabilities.
The open architecture of the back end will also enable the rapid low cost development cycles necessary for the radar to be adapted to counter dynamic and developing threats. The concept is that the whole radar will become what is being called ‘mission ware’, which can be changed with the same level of overhead and difficulty as it now takes to change mission data – crucially without having to go back through the safety case every time the software is changed.
The ECRS Mk 2 also has a completely
new processor, a new receiver, a dedicated EW receiver and techniques generator, and a completely different system for the antenna repositioner, using a single rotating joint, rather than the double swashplate arrangement of Captor-E. The aircraft will even feature a
new radome to support the wide bandwidth that comes with ECRS Mk 2.
The Typhoon’s relatively wide nose allows it to accommodate a large radar dish, and this in turn allows a large number of transmit-receive modules (TRMs).
Leonardo claim that ECRS Mk 2 has significantly more Transmit-Receive Elements than other radars. Because a large dish with a large number of transmit receive modules makes for a narrow beam, this means that ECRS Mk 2 will have focused power, and since the Typhoon provides all of the electrical power and cooling that is needed, it will have the ability to generate some exceptionally high-powered, focused electronic attack, but also great sensitivity allowing
unparalleled passive detection and a very long reach.
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The ECRS Mk 2 radar makes use of
both Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) semi-conductors within its array, blending the strengths of the different technologies to cost effectively provide a differentiating military capability.
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Bright Adder will now fly on a Typhoon as part of the ECRS.Mk 2 test and evaluation (T&E) effort, with a number of other test radars and the first three production systems.
The first ‘Radar Two’ will fly in a Typhoon in 2022, and the T&E fleet will build steadily from there, achieving
IOC (Initial Operational Capability) for the ECRS Mk 2 soon after 2025.
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The initial plan is for
all 40 of the UK’s Tranche 3 aircraft to be equipped with ECRS Mk.2, though there is an option to re-equip Tranche 2 Typhoons as well. Both Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 aircraft have the necessary pre-mods to allow an ECRS Mk 2 retrofit, but that decision does not need to be made yet.
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Ironically, in view of its selection of the ECRS Mk 1 for its Tranche 2/3 upgrade and Tranche 1 replacement,
Germany could still be a customer for ECRS Mk 2. Germany has an outstanding requirement to replace some 85 surviving Tornados, and may opt for a split buy of Super Hornets and Eurofighters to meet this requirement, divided between 30 Block III F/A-18E/Fs and 15 E/A-18G Growler Electronic Attack and SEAD-versions, plus 40 Eurofighters to replace the Tornado for strike missions, with an option for a further 15 aircraft for Electronic Attack. Alternatively, Germany could still opt for an all-Eurofighter solution. It has been reported that German defence minister
Ursula von der Leyen may have favoured equipping these aircraft with Radar Two, though Airbus’ unveiling of a dedicated SEAD variant (the so-called Eurofighter ECR) to meet the LUWES (Luftgestätze Wirkung im Elektromagnetischen Spektrum or airborne action in the electromagnetic spectrum) requirement may make this less likely.
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