Cassidian Develops New Gen AESA Radar

Cassidian has developed a new generation of transmit & receive modules which give the new AESA radars with electronic beam scanning previously unattained performance. With the new modules, the multi-mode and multi-tasking capabilities of AESA antennas can be enhanced on a sustained basis while at the same time significantly reducing production costs. “Our new-generation modules increase radar performance, while the cost of production is reduced by more than 30 per cent,” says Dr. Elmar Compans, head of the Sensors & Electronic Warfare unit at Cassidian. In contrast to conventional systems, radars based on AESA technology can perform several tasks practically simultaneously. The transmitting energy is generated directly in the antenna, namely in a multitude of transmit & receive modules (TRM), instead of in a delicate central transmitter. With environmental qualification to IEC 60748, Cassidian now has completed the basic development of a new generation of transmit & receive modules. This milestone will pave the way for using these high-tech components in particularly demanding applications in the aerospace sector. Cassidian has optimised the industrial production of these modules using a standard design based on a modular principle.