Defense News
02/16/2012
Singapore: AESA Radar Competition Heats Up
By Wendell Minnick
SINGAPORE — A
competition pitting Northrop Grumman against Raytheon to supply Active
Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radars for retrofits for F-16 fighter upgrade
programs in South Korea and Taiwan is heating up at the Singapore Airshow.
Northrop received
official permission from the U.S. government to submit proposals to sell the
Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) to South Korea for 135 KF-16C/D Block 52 fighters
and to Taiwan for 146 F-16A/B Block 20 fighters. The SABR is facing off against
the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar (RACR), which received an export license in
2008.
A DSP-5 export
license was issued in January, said Joseph Ensor, Northrop’s ISR and Targeting
Systems vice president and general manager. The license allows for the release
of technical information and other data to a foreign country. The DSP-5,
authorized by the U.S. State Department, is the first step in the Foreign
Military Sales (FMS) program managed by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation
Agency (DSCA).
“You can’t provide
a proposal without a DSP-5 license, but within the DSP-5 there are provisos
that limit the release of some sensitive data,” said Raytheon’s Jim Hvizd, vice
president of International Strategy and Business Development. The U.S.
Congress, under FMS guidelines, must then approve the sale before going
forward.
“We look at it
pragmatically that we fully comply with U.S. regulations,” Hvizd said. “We had
a license to take it to South Korea to demonstrate.”
In some ways,
Raytheon’s possession of a DSP-5 since 2008 has given it advantages over
Northrop. In addition, Raytheon’s earlier AESA radar, the APG-63(V)2, is the
only AESA radar to have been equipped on Lockheed’s F-16 Falcon, as well as
Boeing’s F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Hornet.
“Our users have
already used our earlier AESA radars in combat, which has added capability to
RACR,” Hvizd said.
Singapore was the
first to get an AESA radar, the APG-63(V)3, for the F-15SG. Hvizd said that
radar is being offered on the F-15 for South Korea’s FX-3 competition.
The winner of
either of these competitions could create a “winner take all” effect for later
competitions in both the international and U.S. markets, Ensor said.
“I do believe the
first competitions will give the winner more confidence,” Hvizd said.
The stakes could be high with the Feb. 10 issuance by the U.S. Air
Force of a request for information (RFI) on AESA retrofits.
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