Raytheon Unveils JSF Radar Mockup

Raytheon has unveiled a mockup of the radar array it's developing for the Joint Strike Fighter program. The active, electronically scanned array (AESA) is a fixed octagonal structure, canted aft to reduce its radar reflectivity, containing some 1,000 transmit-receive (T-R) modules.

Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are competing to develop the JSF's main forward-looking array, the Multi-Purpose Integrated Radio Frequency System. The MIRFS competition is in parallel with the JSF contest and does not depend on the outcome of the competition between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

MIRFS is not designed to equal the range of the F-22's APG-77 radar, but faces other challenges: in particular, it is intended to provide high-resolution ground mapping and acts as a highly sensitive passive receiver to locate hostile emitters. It is also intended to operate over a wider bandwidth than the APG-77.

Prototype MIRFS arrays are flying aboard the JSF teams' test-bed aircraft.

By Bill Sweetman