Thales wins contract to develop demonstrator for RBE2 combat radar with active array antenna
20 July 2004
The French defence procurement agency (DGA) has renewed its confidence in Thales by awarding a new contract, worth 85 million euros, to develop a second demonstrator for the RBE2 electronic scanning radar with active array antenna* for the Rafale combat aircraft.
This new contract will demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of equipping the Rafale combat aircraft's RBE2 electronic scanning radar with an active array antenna based on European technology. It also covers risk assessment associated with radar integration (thermal, mechanical, electrical environment) and in-flight operational testing.
In April 2002, the DGA appointed Thales to develop a first active array radar demonstrator based on the RBE2. This first demonstrator successfully achieved its objectives, flying for the first time on the Mystère 20 testbed aircraft at the Cazaux flight test centre in December 2002, and for the first time on the Rafale in April 2003.
The developments made using this demonstrator could lead to installation of the RBE2 radar on production Rafale combat aircraft. With the radar's scalable architecture, the upgrade to the active array antenna simply involves changing antennas (plug-and-play).
* In a radar system, an antenna is said to be "active" if a single subassembly performs all functions related not only to radar wave transmission, but also to the amplification of emitted power and pre-amplification of the returned signal. This is achieved using a front end comprising an array of transmit/receive (T/R) modules.
Press contacts :
Christophe Robin - +33 (0)1 57 77 86 26
Sophie Moreau - +33 (0)1 34 81 61 98
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