ERIEYE AEW/C for Royal Malaysian Air Force

[Fareds]

LANGKAWI, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- Saab AB, the biggest defence equipment company in northern Europe, is at advanced stage of negotiations to sell its most advanced surveillance system to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).

Saab International Senior Vice-President Bo Rastedt said the talks have been going on for about seven to eight years and the RMAF might decide on the matter soon.

"If I should guess, I hope we should get something in four to six months," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the six-day LIMA `03 Exhibition that ends Sunday.

The System, the Saab 2000 ERIEYE AEW&C (Aircraft Early Warning & Control) is the most modern tactical surveillance system today.

The company felt four of such systems are adequate for Malaysia to have a 24-hour nationwide air surveillance.

It was reported recently that the RMAF needed four of such systems.

Besides Saab, the other main contenders are Boeing and Northrop Grumman.

The Saab Surveillance System solves both national and international interoperability issues, such as search and rescue operations, surveillance and control of national borders and economic zones, detection of illegal activities (illegal immigration) and drug trafficking.

Saab Surveillance System includes a highly mobile sensor system that have a coverage distance of up to 450km. The sensor is placed on top of a fuel-efficient Saab 2000 turbo prop regional aircraft that can fly eight to 10 hours non-stop.

The Saab 2000 is bigger than the Saab 340 airplane used in the Swedish army-owned Saab Surveillance System. The larger aircraft has space to accommodate more than five people to operate the five working stations onboard.

"We've received interest from some countries in this area. So far, we hope Malaysia will be the first one (to acquire the Saab Surveillance System)," said Rastedt.

On pricing, he said, it depends on what RMAF would put onboard.

Other news on Malaysian Aeronautics and Aerospace:

Malaysia has signed partnership with PROGRESS of Ukraine thru local radar developer AMCOP to develop and market radars, most possibly the KOLCHUGA radar capable of passive detection of stealth aircraft.

Malaysian UAV developer Excelnet is developing MicroUAV that has an endurance of 1 hour and a range of 10km. It has already built and handover 3 Eagle ARV reconnaissance drone to RMAF that have a 200km operational radius and 10 hours endurance. The ARV is equipped with FLIR and 10x magnification optics.

Malaysian satellite builder Astronautics Technology Sdn. Bhd. (ATSB) after successfully build and launched 2 60cm resolution multispectral optical satellites plan to work together with EADS Astrium to build and launch a satellite with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capability by 2007. The SAR technology is capable of penetrating clouds and to some extent vegetation.

[Oqaab]

Pakistan negotiated for Erieye Awacs systems in early 90s but the deal was canceled by sweden coz of Pressler' Amendment and sanctions over Pakistan.

[Fareds]

Hi there Oqaab,

Is this sanctions made b'cos Pakistan develop nuclear weapons? Need clarification here

The Erieye is not the only system offered to M'sia. RMAF was also offered the Wedgetail MESA AEW/C. But from the report u can say that the Erieye will emerge as the winner...

The Erieye AEW/C is different from AWACS. It use advanced phase array that can beam radar to any spot necessary apart from 360 degrees surveillance, whereas the traditional rotodome can't. Rotodome can only scan sector by sector at one time.

Another different thing is only EW system is installed, but Control will be done on the ground. It means that if the Erieye detects incoming hostile, all the information will be sent back (realtime datalink) to the ground station for control. Here the ground control station will priotise the target and assign it to the interceptors accordingly, and via datalink the interceptor will see the target on it's radar as what the ground control station want it to see.

With the Control done on the ground, Erieye can carry much less crew and use smaller platform then AWACS.

[Oqaab]

Hello Fareds,

Sanctions were imposed on Pakistan in 1990 and after the sanctions countries like Germany, UK and Sweden imposed sanctions over Pakistan. But now it seems like Pakistan may get AWACS system, not from Sweden, but from USA.

BTW nice post, keep the good work up. We want topics written by yourself as well.

Thanx.

[Fareds]

Thanx to u too Oqaab I'll try to give more contributions the best I can.

It is nice to hear PAF will get the AWACS. These a/c will surely boost PAF capability. RMAF used to be heavily dependant on US equipment, but currently it is using Mig 29 and recenly closed a deal for SU-30 MKM from Russia.

One of the best thing about having AWACS is it gives jet fighters the ability to "ambush" the agressor. An agressor without AWACS back-up will be sitting duck even if the a/c is more modern than the defender.

In the ambush mode, the a/c can shut down it's own radar and rely totally on realtime datalink from AWACS to determine the position and heading of the agressor a/c. The defender a/c can then sneak up from behind the agressor to get a missile lock.

During this period, the agressor Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) will only display radar threats from the AWACS and not the defender a/c, and as the agressor own radar can only scan the forward sector of the a/c, in no way the pilot will be aware of the defender a/c sneaking up from behind.

If the defender a/c is equipped with Active Radar Homing AAM such as AMRAAM or R-77 ADDER, the pilot will realised it has been locked on by the enemy missile only at the very last minute, by then it will be too late to take any evasive action. ARH missiles can go active around 10 seconds before impact.

Even if the defender use Semi Active Radar Homing (SARH) such as Sparrow, the defender wingman can "paint" the target while the other launch it successively against enemy targets. However, radar "paint" will give sufficient warning to the target to take evasive manouver.

The other method is to use close range Infra Red Homing missiles such as the Sidewinder. The pilot only need visual target to launch the missile and don't have to paint target with radar. However, the pilot need to get close within visual range and risked being spotted first by the enemy pilot.

[Oqaab]

Malaysia is also purchasing the F-18 Hornet fighters. Are these F-18s meant to replace mig-29s ??? or Su-30 will replace them ????

If the defender a/c is equipped with Active Radar Homing AAM such as AMRAAM or R-77 ADDER, the pilot will realised it has been locked on by the enemy missile only at the very last minute, by then it will be too late to take any evasive action. ARH missiles can go active around 10 seconds before impact.

Means SD-10(chinese upg R-77) will not be able to take action against it ?

[Fareds]

Originally Posted by Oqaab

Means SD-10(chinese upg R-77) will not be able to take action against it ?

The rule of the game is First Detect, First Shoot = First Kill. When I said defender a/c I mean the attacker - the one that shoot first... so if the a/c equipped with SD-10 manage to detect and fire first, most likely it will win the engagement.

RMAF will retain it's current squadron of Mig29N. In fact, they are planning to upgrade it to Mig29SMT standard with more powerful Zhuk-M radar than the current Topaz.

The new SU-30MKM squadron will be use as Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) and long-range interceptor. Cost estimated at 900 million US. Most likely it will be equipped with Bars Radar but not the R-77 Adder

The current force of F/A-18D Hornet 2 seater strike a/c will be trade in for 18 F/A-18F 2 seater Superhornet for long-range maritime strike role. Can't confirm whether RMAF will equip it with APG-79 AESA Radar and the AMRAAM. Cost estimated at 1.5 billion US.

[Red aRRow]

Thanks for the info Fareds.

[ullu]

Originally Posted by shamayel

Thanks for the info Fareds.

I agree... where are you from fareds? You seem to know a lot! Hey webs this is the guy to keep here...for future adminship

[Fareds]

Originally Posted by ullu

I agree... where are you from fareds? You seem to know a lot! Hey webs this is the guy to keep here...for future adminship

Gee, thanx ullu...I am just a simple guy only. I'm sure all of us could share a bit knowledge together.

Where I come from? Obviously from Malaysia. To be exact, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our administrative capital, Putrajaya is now hosting the OIC summit here...

[Oqaab]

BTW welcome to the forum.