The 38 Tranche 4 EUROFIGHTERS ordered by the German Armed Forces will receive Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radars from HENSOLDT. Prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space has awarded a contract worth €200M for the production and delivery of radar and core electronic components to the radar supplier, HENSOLDT said in a statement.
The order is part of the Quadriga programme where the first tranche of EUROFIGHTERs will be replaced by 38 new examples. The aircraft are scheduled to be delivered between 2025 and 2030. Production of the radar systems is being carried out in a European consortium led by HENSOLDT, with its main partner Indra in Spain. HENSOLDT is investing an additional €30M in the construction of a development centre at its Ulm site, where AI-based sensors for a wide range of applications will be developed in addition to electronic components for the EUROFIGHTER’s new radar.
The principle of AESA technology is based on electronic control of the radar beam by a large number of individual transmit/receive modules in conjunction with a multi-channel receiver. This makes it possible to track individual targets and, at the same time, to scan in front of the aircraft over a large area. Thus, with this technology, tasks can be carried out simultaneously during a mission. With the previous mechanical rotating radar antenna, these tasks could only be performed one after the other.
Wolfgang Gelpke
