September 22, 2024 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
September 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
Counter-drone tech and state-of-the-art radar for the RAF
RAF Typhoons are to be equipped with next generation radar thanks to a £317 million investment, Defence Minister Jeremy Quin today announced.
The new contract will secure over 600 jobs and make sure the UK remains at the forefront of radar technology development.
The RAF is also one step closer in bringing its ORCUS technology into force, which can jam radio signals from drones and has already been successfully deployed during drone sightings at airports.
Confirming the news at the Defence Procurement, Research, Technology & Exportability (DPRTE) 2020 event, the Minister, said:
It is vital that our Armed Forces are equipped with the latest technology to counter emerging threats from our adversaries.
Today we announce the investment in the latest in radar technology for our fighter jets and pioneering new defence systems to counter threats from drones. This demonstrates our commitment to maintaining security in the air whilst supporting highly-skilled jobs across the UK.
Typhoon radar
The new Typhoon radar investment will ensure the aircraft are equipped with world-class technology. Crown copyright.
Typhoon aircraft will be equipped with next-generation radar thanks to £317 million investment that will allow it to locate, identify and suppress enemy air defences using high-powered jamming.
The integration of the new European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk2, which is based on Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology, will provide a capability edge in the increasingly contested battlespace.
Currently fitted with mechanically-scanning radar, the Typhoon is designed to be continuously upgraded to meet operational demand no matter the challenge or threat. The ECRS Mk2 will allow the aircraft to simultaneously detect, identify and track multiple targets in the air and on the ground in the most challenging environments.
Planned to be in service by the mid-2020s, the radar development programme will sustain hundreds of highly skilled jobs, including more than 300 at Leonardo's Edinburgh site and 100 at their Luton site; 120 at BAE Systems' site in Lancashire and 100 at their site in Dunfermline, Fife; and 50 at sub-contractor Meggitt in Stevenage.
Counter-drone technology
ORCUS counter-drone technology is part of the RAF's SYNERGIA research and development programme. Crown copyright.
The Royal Air Force's SYNERGIA counter-drone research and development programme has reached a significant milestone with the ORCUS counter-drone capability achieving initial operating capability (IOC). IOC was achieved after ORCUS completed successful testing of a full range of integrated detect, track, ID, and defeat technologies.
Vital to protecting UK air bases from hostile drone activity, ORCUS will enable the RAF to evaluate a range of capabilities including advanced radar, electro-optic and radio frequency sensors, plus an electronic attack countermeasure. The device looks similar to a camera module placed on top of a tripod, allowing for unparalleled versatility in operations.
The technology is part of the RAF's Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) research and development programme with Leonardo to establish the most effective way to detect, track, identify and defeat hostile drones.
Elements of Leonardo's C-UAS equipment played a supporting role in RAF Force Protection in 2018 and 2019, following drone sightings at Gatwick and Heathrow airports, allowing airport operations to resume.
The current phase of the programme, which started in 2019, supports more than 50 highly skilled jobs with over 20 at Leonardo, with the primary integration work undertaken at its Basildon and Southampton sites and real-time testing taking place at several MOD locations within the UK.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/counter-drone-tech-and-state-of-the-art-radar-for-the-raf
On the same subject
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August 13, 2019 | International, Land
It’s official: US Army inks Iron Dome deal
By: Jen Judson HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The contract to purchase two Iron Dome systems for the U.S. Army's interim cruise missile defense capability has been finalized, according to the deputy in charge of the service's air and missile defense modernization efforts. Iron Dome was co-developed by American company Raytheon and Israeli defense firm Rafael. It is partly manufactured in the United States. Now that the contract is set in stone, the Army will be able to figure out delivery schedules and details in terms of taking receipt of the systems, Daryl Youngman told Defense News at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, on Aug. 8. The Army was shifting around its pots of funding within its Indirect Fires Protection Capability (IFPC) program — under development to defend against rockets, artillery and mortars as well as unmanned aircraft and cruise missiles — to fill its urgent capability gap for cruise missile defense on an interim basis. Congress mandated the Army deploy two batteries by fiscal 2020 in the service's fiscal 2019 budget. Iron Dome could feed into an enduring capability, depending on how it performs in the interim, Youngman said during a separate interview shortly before the symposium. “We're conducting analysis and experimentation for enduring IFPC,” Youngman said. “So that includes some engineering-level analysis and simulations to determine the performance of multiple options, including Iron Dome — or pieces of Iron Dome — and then how we integrate all of that into the [integrated air and missile defense] system.” Col. Chuck Worshim, the Army's project manager for cruise missile defense systems with the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, told Defense News in April that the service was reworking its enduring IFPC program strategy and would experiment throughout the summer and fall to get a better sense of how IFPC might look beyond interim capabilities. In the meantime, Iron Dome will be fielded to operational units and will likely participate in formal and informal exercises to identify how it can be used as part of the IFPC and air defense architectures, compared to how it is currently employed in Israel countering incoming rockets and missiles at short range. Iron Dome is one of the most used air defense systems in the world. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2019/08/12/its-official-us-army-inks-iron-dome-deal/
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November 25, 2024 | International, Land
UK-led JEF completes Exercise Joint Protector in Latvia
The UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), comprising ten Northern European countries, has concluded Exercise Joint Protector in Latvia.