Super bug gets a new radar

IDonT

Senior Member
VIP Professional
Raises the capability of the carrier air wing and makes the super bugs very deadly. Gone are the air to air and air to ground switch.
Increase in detection and engagement range huh? Could it be possible that the AMRAAMs range can be increase.?

Just read this capabilities:

Raytheon Company's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) recently delivered its first revolutionary APG-79 radar to Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in St. Louis.

This low rate initial production (LRIP) delivery is the first of 415 radars to be delivered to Boeing for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, with the goal of operational readiness by September 2006.

The APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system provides aircrew with greater capabilities than ever before. Aside from increased reliability, the radar provides improved situational awareness through its ability to conduct both air-to-air and air-to-ground operations almost simultaneously at greater distances.

The AESA radar can track significantly more targets than current systems and can operate in multiple modes simultaneously (real beam mapping, ground moving target, air-to-air search, etc.). They are capable of detecting stealthy cruise missiles at ranges that will permit them to be attacked.

Featuring active electronic beam scanning, which allows the radar beam to be steered at nearly the speed of light, the APG-79 offers image resolution, and targeting and tracking range, significantly greater than that of the current operationally deployed F/A-18 radar. With these enhanced capabilities, aircrews can now detect and identify targets beyond the reach of the Super Hornet’s AIM-120 Slammer missiles. Though the exact range and resolution of the radar are classified an inference can be made for the fact that the AIM-120 missile has a reported range of over 30 nm.

The APG-79’s long standoff range also allows more time for persistent target observation, information sharing, and assessment by commanders before critical decisions are made. The result: greatly increased aircraft/aircrew effectiveness and survivability.

The radar facilitates sharing information with other aircraft, both manned and unmanned. The goal is to be able to build an overall picture of the battle field using inputs from multiple AN/APG-79 radars.


Aviation Week and Space Technology has quoted US Naval officials as stating that the radar can also be used for jamming within a limited range of frequencies.

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Sea Dog

Junior Member
VIP Professional
This is a great development. Super Hornet continues to become more capable with each passing year. With the processing of this radar, it's pretty much guaranteed "first-shot, first kill". It's maneuvarability problems don't seem so troublesome after all.
 

tphuang

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
VIP Professional
Registered Member
The bug will probably serve until JSF comes in and quite a bit of time after JSF comes in. No question that an AESA radar was needed for the super bug. I guess the next thing we will see in the bug is even more changes for lower RCS and such.

Definitely the premier fighter in the market in terms of the different things that it can do.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Actually the new radar is still under test and evaluation by VX-9. But it won't be long before it hits the airways...Awesome technology. I'm sure there are some in this forum that think it's just bravado by the USN. It's not. It's real. Deal with it.

China Lake, Calif. (Dec. 15, 2005) – An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine (VX-9) conducts an operation test mission as a dessert rainstorm dissipates over the Coso Mountain Range. This aircraft is one of the first Super Hornets equipped with the revolutionary new APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, which could eventually give naval aircrews a quantum leap in tactical capability over older aircraft equipped with mechanical radar systems.
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