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Sydney - The Royal Australian Navy may be the world's first to
take a fourth-generation active phased-array radar to sea when a
preproduction sensor participates in a naval trial in the Indian
Ocean next month. In addition, concurrent ship upgrade programs
will improve the combat capability and survivability of its
existing fleet of FFG-7 and Anzac-class frigates.
The Navy will mount a CEAFAR radar, manufactured by CEA
Technologies, Canberra, aboard an Anzac-class frigate in a final
risk-mitigation exercise before the system is retrofitted to the
entire fleet of eight Anzac frigates. An earlier prototype had been
evaluated at sea in 2005, but next month's trial will be the first
of a fully digital fourth-generation radar with
production-representative power levels and signal processing
algorithms.
Testing of CEAFAR production radar arrays has commenced on the
rooftop of the CEA Technologies facility in Canberra, said Ian
Croser, technical director at CEA Technologies.
The rooftop testing will be immediately followed by an at-sea
demonstration on an Anzac-class ship, using a specially designed
mobile dual-face configuration.
"We have diverted significant resources and energy into this
extra at-sea demonstration opportunity at the request of the DMO
Project Office, but we consider the extra benefit is worth the very
tight schedule and the risk that this presents," said Croser.
"This demonstration has taken advantage of an early alignment of
equipment, software and Anzac class ship availability. This
presents an additional but important risk mitigation
opportunity."
The CEAFAR S-band search-and-track radar and its adjunct
CEAMOUNT X-band target illuminating radar form the core of the 778
million Australian dollar ($539.3 million) anti-ship missile
defense upgrade of the Navy's Anzac frigates under Project Sea 1448
Phase 2B. The first ship set of production radars will be installed
aboard HMAS Perth in January 2010.
Because they handle crossing as well as head-on targets, the
CEAFAR/CEAMOUNT combination will increase the Anzacs' self-defense
capabilities as well as their ability to protect other ships around
them.
The CEAFAR sensor is much lighter than existing search-and-track
radars and its beam can be steered rapidly or focused to overcome
jamming and clutter. The CEAMOUNT target illuminator can also shift
its beam rapidly from one incoming target to another, ensuring each
target is illuminated to guide an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile to
intercept it, while continuing to track other targets.
This provides the ships with multiple channels of fire; at
present they have only one, provided by their mechanically steered
Saab 9LV illuminator.
The Anzac fleet is undergoing a series of upgrades, including
the installation of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, a torpedo defense
system, mine- and obstacle-avoidance sonar, a Sagem infrared
search-and-track sensor and an upgraded Saab 9LV Mk3E combat
management system to handle the higher data throughput.
A former Navy director of maritime development, retired
Commodore Paul Greenfield, said the Navy "will be very impressed by
the capabilities of the Anzacs' new weapon system, including the
radars."
CEAMOUNT's fourth-generation technology clears the bottleneck
created by mechanically steered target illuminators, which limit
the number of targets a ship can engage simultaneously, Greenfield
said.
Fourth-generation radar sensors are all-digital, Greenfield
said, and each of the 1,024 transmitter/receiver modules on the
antenna face can be controlled independently, allowing the use of
different wave forms to overcome jamming and background clutter. In
the future, with the right processing capabilities,
fourth-generation radars will be able to function as high-capacity
data links or control UAVs.
Only two companies, CEA Technologies, of which Northrop Grumman
owns a 49 percent stake, and Lockheed Martin are developing
fourth-generation sensors, Greenfield said. CEA is working under a
21 million Australian dollar research and development contract from
the Defence Material Organisation (DMO) to develop high-power
active phased-array radar technology under the joint U.S.-Australia AUSPAR radar
research program, launched in 2005.
Meanwhile, the Navy is expected during the week of Nov. 18 to
formally accept the first three of four Adelaide-class FFG-7
frigates upgraded by Thales Australia, here, under a 2.1 billion
Australian dollar contract. The fourth ship should be accepted
around mid-2009, said Chris Lloyd, Thales project director.
The upgrade is two years behind
schedule but will extend the lives of the FFGs to 2021 and increase
their point and area air defense capabilities, pending their
gradual replacement from 2015 by three new Aegis-equipped
Hobart-class air warfare destroyers.
The three ships accepted next month - HMAS Sydney, Melbourne and
Darwin - will be fitted with the new Australian Distributed
Architecture Combat System (ADACS) developed by Thales Australia.
The first naval combat system developed entirely in Australia, it
includes a new electronic warfare and torpedo defense system, and
an upgraded fire control system, the Mk92 Mod12, which will control
both the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile and the Standard Missile-2.
This is the first time either missile
has ever been installed aboard an FFG-7 frigate.
The Standard Missile-2 will be installed next year under a
separate contract, according to Mal Adams, the DMO's FFG upgrade
project director.
The ADACS also includes a Link 16 tactical data link terminal,
the first ever installed aboard an Australian warship. This will
enable Australia's FFG-7s to exchange tactical data, including
radar and other sensor information with allied ships and aircraft
as well as the Royal Australian Air Force's F/A-18 Hornets and
Super Hornets, its Boeing 737 Wedgetail early warning aircraft and
with its new air defense command-and-control system, code-named
Vigilare.
Link 16 isn't in service elsewhere in the Navy, so Thales and
the Navy validated its performance earlier this year with the help
of a visiting U.S. Navy destroyer equipped with Link 16. ■--EOQ
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3778074
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can SG DSTA and DSO etc learn somethings from this projects?
HMAS
Anzac. FFH 150. Anzac Class Frigate. (The ANZAC Class is based on the German Meko
200 frigate design with eight ships being constructed in
Australia). RAN photo.
http://www.diggerhistory2.info/graveyards/pages/history/2005.htm