Euroradar CAPTOR - Development

Development

The selection of the radar had become a major stumbling block in the EFA project (as the Eurofighter Typhoon was known as the time). Britain, Italy and Spain supported the Ferranti-led ECR-90, while West Germany preferred the APG-65 based MSD2000 which was a collaboration between Hughes, AEG and GEC. An agreement was reached after the British Defence Secretary Tom King assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg that the British government would underwrite the project and allow GEC to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its troubled parent. Hughes sued GEC for $600 million for its role in the selection of the EFA and alleged that it used Hughes technology in the ECR-90 when it took over Ferranti. It later dropped this allegation and was awarded $23 million, the court judged that the MSD-2000 "had a real or substantial chance of succeeding had GEC not tortuously intervened... and had the companies, which were bound by the Collaboration Agreement, faithfully and diligently performed their continuing obligations thereunder to press and promote the case for MSD-2000."

Each of the seven Eurofighter Development Aircraft (DA) have specific responsibilities in the test programme, Germany's DA5 and the UK's DA4 were involved in radar trials. A BAC 1-11 jet was also used for radar trials, the nose of the aircraft fitted with a Eurofighter radome.

The CAPTOR was designed for use with "Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile"s (BVRAAM) and the Eurofighter will be fitted with the MBDA Meteor. Since the end of the Cold War the Eurofighter's mission has also moved from a primarily air-defence fighter with secondary ground-attack to a multirole aircraft. As such the radar's ground attack capabilities have been improved.

The CAPTOR radar, entering service now with the Eurofighter partner nations, will see action for at least two decades. However, work is already under way on its replacement. The Airborne Multirole Solid State Active Array Radar (AMSAR) another European collaborative project, is produced by the British/French/German GTDAR ("GEC-Thomson-DASA Airborne Radar") consortium. This organisation is now made up of SELEX, EADS and Thales. It is possible the radar will be ready for the Tranche 3 Typhoons or, failing that, may be incorporated in a future mid life update (MLU.)