It May Look Like Astor, But NATO Ground Surveillance Bid is Different,
and with UAV
With the competition for NATO's future air ground surveillance
aircraft heating up, Raytheon officials stress their Cooperation
Transatlantic AGS System will not just be a rehash of the British
Astor and that it will sport an unmanned aircraft adjunct.
The Raytheon, BAE Systems CTAS is expected to announce soon an
arrangement to include a UAV in time for submission of bids later
this year. Raytheon officials were skittish about saying too much
about their UAV approach, acknowledging though that it would be
a high-altitude, long-endurance vehicle. Other officials indicate
the partner will be General Atomics, with the company's Predator-C
UAV as the likely solution.
The NATO bid will feature similarities with the British Astor
to reduce risk, but will feature a different radar-the Transatlantic
Cooperative AGS Radar that has been baselined by both teams-communications
suite, and NATO-tailored workstation configuration, said Robert
A Bushnell, Raytheon's senior manager for integrated airborne
systems business development. The ground-surveillance Astor has
undergone more than 300 hours of flight-testing, which is applicable
to CTAS because both are platforms are modified Global Express
business jets.
The competition, Bushnell noted, "uses a platform that has
never been designed for this mission, making the cost very high
and the risk very high." CTAS is competing against the EADS,
Northrop Grumman, Thales, Galileo Avionica TIPS team offering
an Airbus A321-based system.
Moreover, Raytheon officials stress the Global Express modified
for the ground moving target tracking role can fly much higher
than its competitor, up to 47,000-48,000 feet, giving the radar
a much better grazing angle than the lower-flying Airbus.
Another feature of their approach that CATS members are touting
is that both the aircraft and the ground stations that are part
of the project can function in a nuclear-, biological- and chemical
weapons-contaminated environment-something that is becoming increasingly
critical in modern combat.
One of the criticisms the competition has put on CTAS is that
adding refueling capability could be complicated. Raytheon officials
counter that the baseline aircraft already provides significant
endurance, allowing a flight profile in which it would fly on-station
in one hour, loiter for eight hours, fly back in an hour and retain
a 45-minute fuel reserve, which is adequate to meet the NATO requirement,
they say. However, refueling options is being mulled, they add.
Astor will have three on-board workstations, with room for one
more. The number of workstations on CTAS would be negotiated with
NATO if the platform is chosen to go into the design and development
phase due to begin next year.
