Indian AESA Radar Developments

old but worth posting.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1319451042409549829

ADA is doing performance characterisation simulations of the LDRE UTTAM X-band AESA radar mated with the radome of Tejas. Such simulations are done at the end of the developmental cycle when individual performance of the radar & radome are known. The UTTAM is nearing deployment.
 
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vstol Jockey said:
This actually opens a whole lot of options for us. Such a large frequency band allows us to even have elements within the leading edge of vertical stabilisers to get very accurate height information of the target and also use that info to either go further forward to get out of view angle of enemy radar and yet shoot down the target from a very large height at which stealth aircraft are supposed to fly or remain at very large range and guide the missile very accurately to the target to deny the target the ability to escape the radar lock of the missile by vertical or horizontal exit by varing the speed and altitude. But to generate such data we will need very high computing power and I do not see any such supercomputer for use in aircraft coming from Indian research organisations. No missile seeker radar operates within this frequency band as today. So we will have radar jamming and radar guidance working together, without limiting the performance of either.
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such super computer exists.
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Hi, I have been trying to understand the technicalities of the Uttam in greater detail. If someone could help me understand the number of TR Modules that an AESA air borne like Uttam would be using?
 
raptor_flanker said:
Hi, I have been trying to understand the technicalities of the Uttam in greater detail. If someone could help me understand the number of TR Modules that an AESA air borne like Uttam would be using?
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The current model that was displayed in Aero India & DefExpo had around 736-740 TRMs. These were using pincer microstrip patch antenna TRMs backed up by GaAs semi-conductors.

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The radar has proved a host of sub-systems like the TRM exciters, beam forming & control, cooling systems, side lobe management, gracious degradation qualities, various targeting modes etc. Thus as it stands the base systems of the AESA radar has been proven.

The other stuff like switching to Vivaldi/TSA antennas, GaN semi-conductors & additional targeting & tracking modes are a matter of adding on. These will require no significant changes to the base AESA.

The Tejas, due to its smaller radome size will probably have around the 740 TRMs as we have seen so far. Future fighters with larger nose cones can accommodate a larger version of the UTTAM with more TRMs. Scaling up TRMs is not really a technological challenge, especially with the Vivaldi/TSA antennas coming up. That should effectively double the number of TRMs with no increase in space.
 
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Originally we used to work with Analogue radars with no tracking capabilities and used to draw target vectors on radar screens with special florescent pencils.

Then came Automatically tracking and plotting radars.

Then many other technologies and then AESA.

Which to the most part is reliant on good software.
Better the software, better the AESA.
 
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safriz said:
Originally we used to work with Analogue radars with no tracking capabilities and used to draw target vectors on radar screens with special florescent pencils.

Then came Automatically tracking and plotting radars.

Then many other technologies and then AESA.

Which to the most part is reliant on good software.
Better the software, better the AESA.
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Correct. Despite advancement of sandbox & other high end simulation softwares, a lot of the AESA software development is still reliant on good old fashioned trial & error. That's why its time consuming & needs of a lot of flight trials.
 
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Gautam said:
The current model that was displayed in Aero India & DefExpo had around 736-740 TRMs. These were using pincer microstrip patch antenna TRMs backed up by GaAs semi-conductors.

View attachment 19162

The radar has proved a host of sub-systems like the TRM exciters, beam forming & control, cooling systems, side lobe management, gracious degradation qualities, various targeting modes etc. Thus as it stands the base systems of the AESA radar has been proven.

The other stuff like switching to Vivaldi/TSA antennas, GaN semi-conductors & additional targeting & tracking modes are a matter of adding on. These will require no significant changes to the base AESA.

The Tejas, due to its smaller radome size will probably have around the 740 TRMs as we have seen so far. Future fighters with larger nose cones can accommodate a larger version of the UTTAM with more TRMs. Scaling up TRMs is not really a technological challenge, especially with the Vivaldi/TSA antennas coming up. That should effectively double the number of TRMs with no increase in space.
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Is there a possibility this gets integrated with the SU-30 Upgrade? The aircraft is anway a cocktail of contrasting subsystems - would the IAF Risk changing it again?
 
raptor_flanker said:
Is there a possibility this gets integrated with the SU-30 Upgrade? The aircraft is anway a cocktail of contrasting subsystems - would the IAF Risk changing it again?
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Technically possible. Though it will be a tough sell with the Russians. Radar is one of the few tech they want untouched on the Su-30MKIs. But then we are going ahead with the IRST upgrade anyway, BEL recently made one. Let's see.
 
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Gautam said:
Technically possible. Though it will be a tough sell with the Russians. Radar is one of the few tech they want untouched on the Su-30MKIs. But then we are going ahead with the IRST upgrade anyway, BEL recently made one. Let's see.
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It's up to the MoD/IAF actually. The Russians are the first preference by process. If the Russians fail to provide a satisfactory option, then Uttam can be exercised. Even if the Uttam ends up better but the Russians meet minimum expected specs, then the Russian radar it is, that's how the process has been designed. If the Russians keep pushing for the Irbis-E instead, then they are going to be at a big disadvantage when the choice is actually made.
 
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