E-2D Update

Full story here:  Flight-Test Program Accelerates For U.S. Navy’s E-2D

Couple of items worth noting:

Within three years, the U.S. Navy’s fleet will have fielded the technology for precisely locating small, flying targets. The target set embraces some of the Navy’s latest nightmares, including the next-generation of stealthy – sometimes supersonic – cruise missiles.Moreover, with the introduction of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) software, the hybrid APY-9 electronically scanned array (ESA) radar on board the new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye will be able to pick those elusive flying targets out of a background of rough terrain and urban sprawl, a far different mission than the overwater detection capability of earlier Navy airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.

Nice…

The goal is "one piece of metal, one track," Mahr says. "That means everyone is looking at a single picture. I’m going to have server capability on the E-2D that can maintain some historical piece of the picture. Other parts are going to be resident in ships and with ground forces. I am the central airborne piece."

Pretty much the goal since Cadillac I, but…

When cued by other intelligence sources, the ESA begins looking ahead and behind the mechanical scan so it can focus on a given piece of airspace to pick out small objects.  "I can track a fast target," Mahr says. "Whether I can acquire any other object is just a matter of how much [radar energy] I put on that particular target" and for how long.   "I may need to see more things [outside the range of the new radar]," Mahr says. "As we move into the world of unmanned and remote vehicles, we’re going to have a large amount of sensor data available. How we’re going to operate with those unmanned vehicles is not fully understood. In some way, every airborne platform will be integrated. That challenge is coming at us."

N-G also just won the BAMS-UA contract . . . things that make you go hmmmm…..

A few details have drifted out of the aerospace industry about the capability. So far, the Advanced Hawkeye’s radar has operated at only half power. Yet the radar’s range already equals that of the E-2C’s conventional radar and the volume of airspace it can monitor has tripled. Even a layman’s extrapolation would put the new E-2D’s range at least at 250 mi. More likely it’s limited only by the aircraft’s radar horizon.

Got our attention, that one did…

Electronic and network attack, for example, are not part of the Advanced Hawkeye’s portfolio.   "Electronic attack is like [the E-2D] carrying bombs; there’s no reason for it," Mahr says. "Other elements in the network do that."  A primary attraction of AESA radars is 2-3 times longer range than single aperture radars. They are also able to focus an array’s energy on enemy sensors and antennas for jamming, placing false targets and even serving as a conduit for the digital attack of integrated communications networks.   So far, at least, the E-2D won’t be operated with those missions in mind, but there are still some interesting electronic warfare applications.

Think "burn through"…

Well, a long time ago when YHS was but a mere pup and the E-2C was still new we wondered what those who flew the TBM-3W and AD-3/5W’s would think of our mighty war steed.  Looking at the Delta, we kinda get the feeling we know — a wee bit of envy but a whole lotta pride looking at our offspring…