Enters the SeaFire
Leonardo’s dual-band AESA radar (DBR) complete suite development, testing and production program is progressing according to schedule at its facilities to be installed on the fourth PPA (in the full-capable configuration) planned to be delivered in 2024. © Leonardo
deliver at the beginning of 2019 in order to begin testing and acceptance trails. The firstof-class PPA in the light version with only the Kronos StarFire 4FF X-band radar system will be delivered to Italian Navy by Fincantieri in 2021. The new C-band AESA four fixed panels radar, each embodying ‘quad pack’ high power four-channel transmit receive modules (TRM) with new generation GaNbased high power amplifier is planned to be delivered in the second half of 2020 to be installed on the PPA Light Plus, the third classship to be delivered to Italian Navy in 2023. All new generation Leonardo’s naval and land radar electronic modules are developed and manufactured in the group-owned and managed foundry, offering tailored and costeffective solutions for all the group products and a national independent-from-market capability, Leonardo claims. The Sea Fire is a fully solid-state all-digital multi-function radar with a four-fixed faces AESA antennas suite, which meets the requirements of a broad range of missions, from ship self-defence to extended air defence, surface surveillance and fire control. © Thales
On April 2017, Naval Group and its industrial partners received a contract from French MoD for the development and construction of the five intermediate-size frigates for the French Navy under the FTI (Frégate de Taille Intermédiaire) programme managed by the French Defence procurement agency (DGA). The first frigate will be delivered in 2023 and is schedule to enter in service in 2025. In joint project management with Naval Group, Thales will provide a number of latestgeneration systems including the new Sea Fire AESA multi-function radar, equipping for the first time a French Navy’s ship. Developed with the support of French DGA, the Sea Fire is a fully solid-state all-digital multi-function radar with a four-fixed faces AESA antennas suite, which meets the requirements of a broad range of missions, from ship self-defence to extended air defence, surface surveillance and fire control in support of current and future MBDA Aster 30 active radar homing surface-to-air missiles family in their whole performance envelope, Thales claims. Conceived and developed as a family of modular and scalable radars to be accommodated on board naval platforms from 4,000-t light frigate to 7,000-t destroyers, the Sea Fire is being offered in three versions with common modular architecture with fully digital and software-controlled processing and incremental capabilities, which differ for the number of digital transmit-receive modules (TRM) in each of the four antenna arrays. Thales has introduced the radar latest technologies, with fully-digital solidstate TRMs applying GaN technology arranged in modules each accommodating eight multi-channel TRMs in a modular architecture designed for redundancy, grateful degradation and easy access. EDR | May/June 2018
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