The prototype of the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) future European Common Radar System Mark 2 (ECRS Mk2) radar took to the skies for the first time on 27 September 2024 on a UK Typhoon test and evaluation aircraft flying out of BAE Systems’ flight test facility in Warton, Lancashire, BAE and the radar’s developer, Leonardo UK, announced the same day.
The flight was the latest step in the ongoing development programme for the RAF’s fleet of Typhoon fighters. The active electronically scanned-array (AESA) ECRS Mk2, otherwise known as ‘Radar 2’, can perform traditional radar functions such as search and targeting as well as providing advanced electronic warfare capabilities, making it an even more potent capability for the RAF’s frontline fighter fleet. Typhoons equipped with the radar will be able to locate and deny use of an adversary’s radar with a powerful electronic jamming attack while staying beyond the reach of threats.
The first flight of a prototype ECRS Mk2 follows a programme of integration through ground-based testing delivered by a successful collaboration between the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), its Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation, the RAF and industry. BAE Systems and Leonardo first announced they had installed the first ECRS Mk2 on a Typhoon test aircraft in January 2024. The companies then announced in July 2024 that ground-based testing of the radar had been completed.
BAE Systems announced it had received an GBP 870 M (EUR 1.02 billion) contract from the UK MoD to continue development and integration work on the ECRS Mk2 for installation on the Typhoon in July 2023.
“Evolution of Typhoon’s air combat capability is paramount to ensure it continues to deter potential aggressors, defend our nation and defeat our adversaries wherever we need to fly and fight, whether for the UK or in our staunch support to the NATO alliance,” Air Commodore Nick Lowe, the RAF’s head of capability delivery for combat air and Typhoon Senior Responsible Officer, was quoted as saying in a joint BAE Systems/Leonardo press release. “This first flight of this ECRS Mk2 prototype new radar in the test aircraft is a positive step towards ensuring this.”
Nick Moore, Typhoon deputy head of capability acquisition for DE&S, stated, “This is another landmark moment in this strategically important programme, which will provide the RAF with battle-winning technology that gives them the edge to protect the nation. The ECRS Mk2 radar will further transform Typhoon’s control of the air and provide exceptional capability our adversaries will struggle to match.”
Tim Bungey, chief engineer for ECRS Mk2 at Leonardo UK, stated: “In parallel with the trials, the radar’s production design has also been progressing apace. The development of the ECRS Mk2 is fully using the UK’s world-class radar design skills. Over the past few months, its processor, receiver and antenna power supply and control units have all been re-engineered from the prototype design to further enhance the capacity, capability and performance of the Mk2 system in alignment with the new antenna and electronic warfare capability.”
BAE Systems and Leonardo bill the ECRS Mk2 as potentially the world’s most advanced AESA radar. While Kuwaiti and Qatari Typhoons are flying with ECRS Mk 0 AESA radars and German and Spanish Typhoons are being equipped with ECRS Mk 1 AESA radars, both of those radars are essentially narrow-band arrays. This means that, although they have many of the design advantages of a high-speed electronically scanned antenna, they are still designed primarily detect other airborne targets. The ECRS Mk 2, on the other hand, is a wide-band array that will not only detect its own emissions and find other targets in that way, but will also passively detect emissions through a far broader range of the frequency spectrum.
