By B.C. Kessner
Northrop Grumman [NOC] yesterday said it is still on schedule to conduct flight tests of its Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) aboard an Air Force F-16 Block 50 aircraft at Edwards AFB, Calif., by the end of the year.
“We’ve already completed a full system fit check at Edwards of a real SABR on an Air Force jet…and we are on track for planned flight tests in November,” Arlene Camp, director Advanced F-16 Radar Programs, told reporters at the Air Force Association 2009 Air and Space Conference at National Harbor.
The fit check was an important milestone for the F-16 flight test plan and proved that the SABR worked with physical interfaces, while allowing time for paperwork documenting the process of removing an old radar and installing SABR–all precursors to actual flight, Camp said.
She said the demonstration/validation program that began three years ago has been “wildly successful,” with SABR designed, built and tested in less than two years. The company worked with the Air Force and F-16 builder Lockheed Martin [LMT] to ensure the seamless transition to the F-16 by the end of last year.
Northrop Grumman has flown SABR aboard its F-16 surrogate test bed aircraft known as Sabreliner and imagery collected last year shows that SBAR is capable of providing tactically relevant data to the pilot in all weather conditions, Camp said. These flights and the ground fit test “proved what we’ve been saying all along, that SABR does not require any new aircraft modifications, you simply take the old radar out and put the new one in. You don’t have to replace the radome, or put anything else new in the airplane,” she added.
Northrop Grumman has already completed its safety of flight certifications and Lockheed Martin and the Air Force are reviewing the paperwork, Camp said. SABR’s digital test bed has been taken to the Lockheed Martin systems integration lab for a week-plus of integration tests and there have been no major issues, she added.
Last year, the company introduced an air-to-air search mode and a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mode into the system. In 2009, it has added three additional modes including air-to-air track, ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and air-to-ground ranging. All five modes are currently being demonstrated on the Sabreliner aircraft, Camp said.
SABR more than doubles the tracking capability of legacy systems because as an AESA system it can perform these modes simultaneously and with other operations, she said.
The GMTI very accurately tracks “ground moves” and places targets precisely on a map, Camp said. For demonstration purposes, Sabreliner is experimenting with displaying that information on moving color maps, such as Google Maps. “This would be a new capability for the legacy F-16 fleet, as currently only the Block 60 aircraft has that,” she said.
The air-to-ground ranging is a feature critical to weapons employment aboard an F-16, she added.
“Together, this offers a full suite…the heart and soul of radar capabilities that we can pull from and add other to as the program goes forward,” Camp said. All have been flying on about 20 flights on the Sabreliner and there is the possibility to take the latest AESA modes as they progress in other platforms, she added.
SABR is about 30-50 pounds lighter than legacy radars, depending on the aircraft, and it fits within the weight requirements of the F-16.
Installation was done on the F-16 with only two technicians in less than five hours after the old radar was removed, Camp said. “This serves to prove our claim that this could be a field retrofit, not a depot modification.”
The full SABR system will be arriving at Lockheed Martin’s systems integration lab shortly for workout with the rest of the aircraft’s avionics, another precursor for flight, Camp said. Since the ground and electromagnetic interference check has been done in the lab, the check out of the test system at Edwards should be quick, about a day or so, she added.
About a half-dozen flights are planned, though there is a strong desire to fly more in the same modes as done previously aboard Sabreliner, if possible, Camp said.
“We are ready for program launch and our schedule could start tomorrow with no additional risk,” Camp said.
The company has provided schedule and pricing information to the Air Force for its budget work, she said. Since AESAs are so much more reliable than legacy radars, and because the company has minimized production costs by ensuring minimal changes to the aircraft, it is cheaper than other options fill capability gaps, she added. “Upgrading the legacy fleet is probably the cheapest way to go to fill legacy platform gaps…such as destruction of enemy air defense (DEAD), increased electronic protection, and air-to-air mission capabilities the Air Force has identified as important requirements in the future.”
Camp said the company was actively working through the export process for international customers. “This radar is innovative and elegant–that’s probably why we’re having such a lengthy time of discussion with the U.S. government about the approval for the export markets–it’s just the first time it’s been done,” she said.
Camp was hopeful for resolution of these issues by the end of the year, but added that initial focus would be only on replacing U.S. radars on U.S.-made or U.S.-controlled planes abroad. SABR’s scalability at this point is in terms of different missions and applications for SABR aboard the F-16 and possibly other U.S. platforms such as bombers or unmanned aerial vehicles, not other types of other countries’ aircraft, she added.
“What we’ve tried to provide is the most affordable, biggest bang for the buck upgrade that you can for the F-16,” Camp said. “We hope the Air Forces recognizes the increase in capability and reliability as they go forward and continue to fly this aircraft for next 20 to 30 yrs.”
Camp said that within a few years of signing a contract, the Air Force could be flying the first delivery SABRs. “We could meet any production rate the Air Force would ask for,” she added.