Sunday, July 26, 2015

Big 3 Battle for E-8 Joint-STARS Replacement

USAF Eyes Business Jets As Possible E-8 JSTARS Replacement
| Defense Tech
Boeing Again Pushes P-8 as a JSTARS Replacement
| Defense News: Aviation International News
ANALYSIS: Northrop battling to retain JSTARS as Lockheed, Boeing bid on recap - 7/24/2015 - Flight Global

An effort to recapitalise the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) with a modern business jet is shaping up to be this summer’s blockbuster defence programme, with three solid industry teams now vying for the $6.5 billion prize and Raytheon working on a curious new airborne radar called “Skynet”.

Northrop (the incumbent prime contractor), Lockheed Martin and Boeing have competing JSTARS proposals and are in a “blackout period” with no communication with the US Air Force as it decides whether to put two or all three teams on contract for an 11-month “pre-development” risk-reduction programme. The decision is expected in late August or early September, the air force says, and the main downselect to a single design will occur in late 2017.

JSTARS Recap, as the programme is known, officially started this year and aims replace the air force’s 16 large and expensive 707-300-based E-8C ground-looking battle management, surveillance and moving target indicator aircraft with 17 militarised business-class aircraft by 2026.

JSTARS Replacement: Competition Opened Wide
June 17/15: Following Northrop Grumman, L-3, General Dynamics and Gulfstream’s lead, a competing team of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Bombardier are now positioning external link to compete for the Air Force’s JSTARS recap program. Raytheon and Lockheed Martin had previously announced their intention external link to partner for the competition, with Bombardier set to bring their long-range business jet to the team, to complement external link Raytheon’s sensor portfolio and Lockheed Martin’s system integration expertise. The Air Force has also opened up external link the competition to European firms.





J-STARS
The entire J-STARS fleet are being progessively upgraded to the Block 20 configuration of the last seven production aircraft in a $40million programme, which has seen new Compaq workstations installed, together with a new General Dynamics radar signall processor and a fibre-optic network. A new open architecture configuration, using two commercial Compaq GS-320 'AlphaServer' processors will allow the aircraft to be upgraded more effectively in the future when new systems are developed. Another development planned for the future is the aircraft’s APY-3 radar benefiting from the $1.3 billion Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Programme (MP-RTIP). Around 2012, the new APY-X two-dimensional electronically scanned active array radar could well replace the current APY-3 radar. In addition, it is also planned to improve the current SAR image resolution with the Enhanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ESAR) and Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) upgrades. Another upgrade programme for the J-STARS is the concept of Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) which will provide templating techniques to identify ground-based targets, using the processed ESAR and ISAR data. The MP-RTIP was originally intended to be installed in the E-10 Multi-Mission Command and Control Aircraft and the RQ-4 Global Hawk rather than the E-8, however, considerable doubts are being raised about the programme cost and appropriate E-10 acquision timescale and this could result in the radar being installed on the E-8. If the upgrade is approved, the first five RTIP equipped would be operational until around 2012.
Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS | Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing - eBooks | Read eBooks online

Joint-STARS Radar and systems

The AN/APY-7 radar can operate in the following modes:
To pick up moving targets, the radar looks at the Doppler frequency shift of the returned signal. It can look from a long range, which the military refers to as a high standoff capability. The antenna can be tilted to either side of the aircraft for a 120-degree field of view covering nearly 50,000 km² (19,305 mile²) and can simultaneously track 600 targets at more than 250 km (152 miles). The GMTI modes cannot pick up objects that are too small, insufficiently dense, or stationary. Data processing allows the APY-7 to differentiate between armored vehicles (tracked tanks) and trucks, allowing targeting personnel to better select the appropriate ordnance for various targets.

The system's SAR modes can produce images of stationary objects. Objects with many angles (for example, the interior of a pick-up bed) will give a much better radar signature, or specular return. In addition to being able to detect, locate and track large numbers of ground vehicles, the radar has a limited capability to detect helicopters, rotating antennas and low, slow-moving fixed-wing aircraft.

Battle management

The radar and computer subsystems on the E-8C can gather and display broad and detailed battlefield information. Data is collected as events occur. This includes position and tracking information on enemy and friendly ground forces. The information is relayed in near-real time to the US Army's common ground stations via the secure jam-resistant surveillance and control data link (SCDL) and to other ground C4I nodes beyond line-of-sight via ultra high frequency satellite communications.
Other major E-8C prime mission equipment are the communications/datalink (COMM/DLX) and operations and control (O&C)subsystems. Eighteen operator workstations display computer-processed data in graphic and tabular format on video screens. Operators and technicians perform battle management, surveillance, weapons, intelligence, communications and maintenance functions.
Northrop Grumman has tested the installation of a MS-177 camera on an E-8C to provide real time visual target confirmation.[6]

In missions from peacekeeping operations to major theater war, the E-8C can provide targeting data and intelligence for attack aviation, naval surface fire, field artillery and friendly maneuver forces. The information helps air and land commanders to control the battlespace.[7]
The E-8's ground-moving radar can tell approximate number of vehicles, location, speed, and direction of travel. It cannot identify exactly what type of vehicle a target is, tell what equipment it has, or discern whether it is friendly, hostile, or a bystander, so commanders often crosscheck the JSTARS data against other sources. In the Army, JSTARS data is analyzed in and disseminated from a Ground Station Module (GSM).

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