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BAE SYSTEMS Passes Major AESA Development Milestone

18 Feb 2003

BAE Systems has achieved a major milestone in the development of the new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Seaspray 7000E airborne surveillance radar. A Seaspray 7000E radar, mounted in the rooftop radome at BAE Systems' new state of the art facility in Edinburgh, transmitted over the Firth of Forth for the first time and successfully detected and tracked airborne and naval targets of opportunity.

"This is a major achievement and demonstrates our commitment to the airborne surveillance radar market", said Dr David Hughes, Executive Vice President, Helicopter Systems. "Having launched Seaspray 7000E at Farnborough International 2002 the first transmission from the AESA antenna illustrates the maturity of this product development, and our readiness to provide systems that meet high performance overland and naval surveillance requirements on all types of airborne platforms. Indeed this new product offers new and innovative operational and logistic opportunities for the service user."

The Seaspray 7000E radar system builds on the production standard Seaspray 3600 COTS 'open architecture' processor that is due to enter service in 2003. The functionality of the Seaspray radar is implemented in software, which facilitates the exploitation of the multi-mode capability of the new Seaspray 7000E AESA antenna.

The resultant system offers significant gains over current generation, 'tube based' high peak power and pulse compression airborne surveillance radar. Comprising only the two line replaceable units, COTS Processor and AESA Antenna, Seaspray 7000E is in the order of 25% lighter than current systems, an order of magnitude more reliable, and offers superior multi-mode performance. The reliability gains completely change the nature of the required maintenance regime, offering very significant improvements in operators' through life costs.

Initially designed as an airborne maritime surveillance radar to meet the requirements of naval helicopters, the flexibility of the technology and the capability of the system enables a wide range of functionality. Seaspray 7000E offers air-to-air, land and naval surveillance for helicopters, UAVs and fixed wing aircraft enabling battlefield surveillance, maritime patrol and maritime surveillance roles to be undertaken.

About BAE SYSTEMS:

BAE Systems is a systems company, innovating for a safer world. BAE Systems employs nearly 100,000 people including Joint Ventures, and has annual sales of around 13 billion. The company offers a global capability in air, sea, land and space with a world-class prime contracting ability supported by a range of key skills. BAE Systems designs, manufactures and supports military aircraft, surface ships, submarines, radar, avionics, communications, electronics, guided weapon systems and a range of other defence products. BAE Systems is dedicated to making the intelligent connections needed to deliver innovative solutions.

BAE Systems airborne radar capability is based in Edinburgh and represents the foremost capability in design, development and production of military airborne fighter and surveillance radar in the UK. It is one of the few organisations in the world with the ability to develop and manufacture pulse Doppler radar from within its own resources.

BAE Systems has been a world leader in the airborne maritime surveillance radar market for over 30 years and for the last 10 years has been developing the Transmit/Receive Module (TRM) technology of which the AESA antenna comprises.

BAE Systems has supplied over 500 variants of the Seaspray radar family on 10 different fixed and rotary wing, and naval and land-based platforms for 17 domestic and export operators.

BAE Systems has taken the technological lead in airborne surveillance radar with the development and launch of Seaspray 7000E. BAE Systems, and the very small number of other international companies that have the ability to develop AESA technology, has focused attention on fighter aircraft radar. To date, only BAE Systems is in a position to offer the benefits of this technology to both markets.

Seaspray 7000E is the most advanced airborne surveillance radar available today, incorporating state of the art technology, distinguishing it and its host platform from competing systems.

Seaspray 7000E is complemented by BAE Systems extensive range of high performance avionics systems, from the world's most sophisticated Helicopter Integrated Defensive Aids System, HIDAS, to the 3rd generation Titan 385 multi-sensor Electro-optical turret; from its world leading fly-by-wire flight control systems to mission computing and comprehensive mission system integration.