Defense Technology International - January/February 2008 - (Page 23) ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES t h s . t a g e ) ), s e e ’t e e a common air, sea and land operational picture. The next step in the TAS plan is to remove all the crews from the air- craft. Itzhakian—speaking at an IQPC Defense conference—said the unmanned system was “not so far away” and noted that an earlier speaker had talked about Boeing’s proposal of an unmanned G550 for the U.S. Navy’s BAMS requirement. “You can figure this out for yourself,” he said. � SEA KING STILL REIGNS ROYAL NAVY A version of the AgustaWestland EH101 helicopter remains the most likely answer to the U.K.’s Maritime Air Surveillance Capability (MASC) requirement, aimed at providing AEW cover for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers. Until then, the navy will rely on the veteran Sea King. The Sea King has become a more effective and versatile system under Project Cerberus, with Thales U.K. as prime contractor. This program is reaching a milestone with the delivery in February of the last of 13 Sea Kings modified into the ASaC7 configuration. The Sea Kings equip three squadrons of three aircraft each. Both the operators and developers concede that the inherent limi- Sea King ASaC7 AEW helicopters are heavily used in current operations, mainly against maritime and land targets. tation of the system is altitude. The heavily laden Sea King has trouble loitering above 7,000-8,000 ft., though its lack of pressurization would make it hard to fly higher. This limits the radar’s range against low-level targets, which could be a problem with high-speed antiship missiles like the Russian 3M54 Club (DTI November 2007, p. 21). The X-band Searchwater radar, however, has proven to be adaptable against land and sea targets; advanced work stations make the most of the two operators; and ground-moving target indication, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse SAR modes have been added. ISAR images can be matched to a library of ship classes to aid in recognition. The ASaC7 has a planned out-ofservice date of 2017. “Main gate” approval for MASC is set for December 2009, with an in-service date of 2015. The baseline proposal, according to Thales, is an EH101 with a radar similar to ASaC7’s, in a retractable radome built into the helicopter’s loading ramp. An alternative installation puts a rotating AESA on a body-mounted pylon. � Ceramic Body Armor Plates Ceradyne’s rugged multi-hit body armor plates are the leading ceramic inserts currently being used by all operational forces. They depend on the proven performance of Ceradyne upgrade plate technology for ballistic protection. Advance lifesaving technology Lighter Weight Visit Ceradyne at AUSA Winter Booth 509 Increased Survivability Side Plate Protection Corporate Office Tel: (714) 549-0421 kmoeller@ceradyne.com Armor Operations/Washington Tel: (703) 518-0618 mking@ceradyne.com www.ceradyne.com 23 DT_01_01_2008_p20-23.indd 23 2555001174 CMYK 1/16/08 11:35:12 AM � http://www.ceradyne.com http://www.ceradyne.com http://www.aviationweek.com/dti
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