Shortcomings in the UK's limited long-range air surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting capabilities are planned for rectification by the MoD's nearly $1.2 billion SR(L/A) 925 airborne stand-off radar (ASTOR) requirement for battlefield surveillance systems, described as a key project in the UK's recent radical strategic defense review. Two main British-based contending teams, led by Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems UK and Raytheon Systems Ltd, have been competing for the originally mid-1980s ASTOR requirement, following receipt of 1995 MoD project definition contracts.

Their best and final offers for the fixed-price contract in February, 1998, however, were joined by a last-minute rebid by Northrop Grumman for a developed E-8 JSTARS mission systems Wizard package, including a new SAR/MTI radar with additional variable-swath and inverse SAR modes, in a Gulfstream V. Other Northrop Grumman Wizard team members include British Aerospace for aircraft, logistic support and defensive aids integration, Computing Devices, L3, and Hastings, among main UK subcontractors.

All ASTOR submissions are based on the use of up to five specially-equipped inter-continental business jets as the proven air platforms for combined moving target indicator and synthetic aperture (MTI/SAR) radar, to operate for long periods at loiter altitudes of 47,000 feet or more for respective army and RAF surveillance requirements. Additional RN requirements are likely to make this a tri-service program. Lockheed Martin's Team ASTOR is proposing the BMW/Rolls-Royce BR710-powered Bombardier Global Express or Gulfstream V to carry a dual-mode electronically-scanned Racal Thorn/Texas Instruments surveillance radar in a forward-fuselage ventral canoe radome.

An upper fuselage fairing will house satellite communications antennas, with another below the rear fuselage for real-time data transfer to ground stations. In flight tests, the GV has been flown to Mach 0.97 and 56,000 feet, and its spacious cabin will be equipped with three or four workstations, plus secure data down-links. In addition to Lockheed Martin and Racal Radar Defence Systems, other Team ASTOR members include Marshalls of Cambridge, as Gulfstream design authority and mission systems contractor; Logica, as communications architect; GEC-Marconi Avionics, for defensive aids sub-systems; MSI, manufacture and installation of nine modular ground stations; and CAE, training simulator and systems.

Bombardier's Global Express is the platform chosen by Raytheon for an upgraded, U-2-type Hughes ASARS-2A advanced dual-mode synthetic-aperture/moving target indicator planar-array radar in an under-fuselage fairing. Raytheon is also offering an integral electro-optical long-range oblique photography system (EO LOROPS) camera in the same fairing as a fully-costed option. The Raytheon/Hughes team is joined by GEC-Marconi Avionics, Marshall SPV for ground-station vehicles, Short Brothers, Thomson-CSF, as well as DRA Malvern, which brings further experience to the radar program.

Originally scheduled for April 1, ASTOR contract award is now expected before the year-end, for a planned initial RAF service date in 2003. The selected design will then be well-placed to bid for NATO's $3 billion Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program for 12 battlefield reconnaissance platforms, deferred for a year to assess the ASTOR outcome. This will be reviewed in competition with the French and Italian HORIZON and Creso helicopter-borne systems.

By John Fricker