Eurofighter has offered India codevelopment of an active antenna for the Typhoon’s Captor radar, as part of its bid to secure that country’s 126-unit order for a new combat aircraft. Eurofighter CEO Aloysius Rauen said that there had been “positive discussions” with India about a plan that would share the costs of converting the mechanically scanned Captor with the four original Eurofighter partner nations.
Neither Germany, Italy, Spain nor the UK has stated a firm requirement for an ‘E-scan’ version of the Captor. But potential export customers are beginning to specify active antennas because of their operational and reliability advantages. These were outlined in a media briefing last month by Dr. Elmar Compans, senior vice president of sensors for EADS Defense Electronics, part of the Euroradar consortium that supplies Eurofighter.
He said that a prototype E-scan Captor, funded by the four partners in Euroradar (EADS, Galilleo, Indra and Selex), had operated for 300 hours without a single failure. The trials took place in 2006 and 2007, including about 150 flight hours on a BAC 111 testbed and a development Typhoon.
