The CAESAR (Captor Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar) system is an E-Scan radar demonstrator developed and funded by the Euroradar consortium consisting of several key industry partners – SELEX Sensors & Airborne Systems (S&AS), EADS Defence Electronics of Germany, Galileo Avionica of Italy and INDRA of Spain.

CAESAR has been specifically developed to fit in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft and builds upon the highly successful Captor mechanically scanned radar which has already proved to be extremely effective. CAESAR will introduce Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology which enable E-scan capability to be fully exploited by the existing Captor radar, while retaining all features and capabilities of the original system.

An international team of engineers have been working on the system to bring it to full functionality for this successful first test flight which took place on Friday 24th February.

This new state-of-the-art AESA technology is becoming the de-facto standard for the primary sensor on advanced fighter aircraft and enables even better reliability, reduced lifecycle costs and improved detection capability. The upgrade package is fully flexible and is readily accommodated within the Typhoon front fuselage allowing easy upgrade of the system.

Having been fully integrated and tested on the ground, the CAESAR system is currently on loan to the CECAR evaluation programme (a joint UK -German government funded programme). This first demonstration flight on a BAC1-11 test-bed aircraft was the culmination of three years work between the European partners. CAESAR has been developed under product development funding from the Euroradar consortium companies.

During the three hour flight the radar successfully engaged air targets and demonstrated operational and performance advantages unique to E-scan fighter radar technology. Further flight trials are scheduled for the latter half of 2006 and these will demonstrate even more advanced air-to-air and air-to-ground performance enhancements.

Having successfully proven the technology, Euroradar is ready to further develop the CAESAR upgrade package so that it can be adopted for production.

Euroradar's Board of Directors (BoD) Chairman Andrew Cowdery said: "This is an exciting stage in the programme. CAESAR is right at the forefront of turning this new technology into operational and proven capability."

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SELEX Sensors & Airborne System
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