, FRIEDRICHSHAFEN: The European SOSTAR-X (SX) programme for the development and demonstration of an advanced airborne ground surveillance radar system has entered its second flight testing phase.
The programme is being performed under a research and development contract awarded under a government agreement between France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
From May to July 2006, a Fokker 100, in which the SX equipment is installed, carried out data gathering flights in Netherland air space in which all sensor modes were tested, both on fixed and moving targets with the support of the Dutch Army and Air Force.
The data were afterwards processed and analysed by the SOSTAR industries. This first test campaign primarily focussed on optimising the functionalities of the radar sensor and mission management system. From the very first test flights, high quality Strip SAR and Spot SAR images of respectively large areas and specific places of interest were gathered.
The Moving Target Indication mode successfully detected and localised moving targets from controlled areas. Findings of the successfully concluded evaluation phase proved the functionalities of this ultra-modern demonstrator as the best-performing European ISR aircraft ever.
“The achieved results demonstrate that the European industries and nations can develop and manage a complex airborne ground surveillance system. This knowledge and experience will be fully applied in the forthcoming NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Programme”, stated Peter Angenoorth, General Manager of the SOSTAR GmbH, a company formed by major European defence industries. “We are now well positioned to reach the leading-edge SOSTAR-X performance requirements during the next phases.”
The second phase of industry flights has now started, with the progressive integration of real-time processing in the airborne mission system. The SX aircraft will perform a wide spectrum of test scenarios during two campaigns in Germany scheduled to last until Spring 2007. These test flights are supported by the German Army and German Air Force.
In a final third phase, a customer flight campaign in France will prove the contractual performance and an operational demonstration with a live military scenario will demonstrate the SOSTAR-X system capabilities to a selected audience.
This phase will feature additional capabilities. like Wide Area GMTI scanning and tracking of ground movers and helicopters, High Resolution Spotlight SAR and Swath SAR Imaging. Target classification by Spectral Classification, High Range Resolution length measurements and Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging of ground moving targets will also be presented.
Most of the mission and sensor planning will occur on-board by means of two operations & control stations. A data link will allow imagery to be down-linked in real time to Ground Stations for further analysis.
SOSTAR GmbH is a Joint Venture Company between Dutch Space, EADS, Galileo Avionica, Indra Sistemas and Thales. The company was founded in 2001 to perform the SOSTAR-X Programme. The SOSTAR-X Programme is to demonstrate by 2007 an advanced ground surveillance radar with AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) antenna that meets the majority of the NATO AGS staff requirements for the radar.
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