APG-63 and APG-70 radars
Encyclopedia
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
systems designed by Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...
(now Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
) for the F-15 Eagle
F-15 Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is considered among the most successful modern fighters with over 100 aerial combat victories with no losses in dogfights...
air superiority fighter. These X-band pulse-doppler radar systems are designed for both air-air and air-ground missions; they are able to look up at high-flying targets and down at low-flying targets without being confused by ground clutter. The systems can detect and track aircraft and small high-speed targets at distances beyond visual range down to close range, and at altitudes down to treetop level. The radar feeds target information into the aircraft's central computer for effective weapons delivery. For close-in dogfights, the radar automatically acquires enemy aircraft and projects this information onto the cockpit heads-up display.
AN/APG-63
The APG-63 was developed in the early 1970s and has been operational since 1973, and was installed on all F-15A/Bs. In 1979, it received a major upgrade and became the first airborne radar to incorporate a software programmable signal processor (PSP), and the PSP allowed the system to be modified to accommodate new modes and weapons through software reprogramming rather than by hardware retrofit. The APG-63 with PSP is one of the most important feature that disguishes earlier F-15 A/Bs from the F-15 C/Ds it arms, and with the exception of the final 43 (which is armed with APG-70), all F-15 C/Ds are armed with APG-63 with PSP.The APG-63 series is no longer in production but remains in service. Almost 1,000 APG-63s had been delivered when production ended in 1986. About 700 are still operational in F-15As, Bs, and early model Cs and Ds operated by the U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard
Air National Guard
The Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia of the United States. Established under Title 10 and...
, and the air forces of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. They are also fitted to the Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft of the United States Customs Service.
AN/APG-70
The APG-70 was a 1980s redesign of the APG-63 for greater reliability and easier maintenance. Additionally, gate array technology enabled the APG-70 to incorporate new modes with enhanced operational capabilities. To reduce production costs, many of the upgraded radar's modules are common with the F/A-18's APG-73 radarAPG-65, APG-73, and APG-79 radars
The AN/APG-65 and AN/APG-73 are designations for a family of all-weather multimode airborne radar systems designed by Hughes Aircraft for the F/A-18 Hornet, and used on a variety of fighter aircraft types. The APG-79 is an upgraded AESA version.These I band pulse-Doppler radar systems are...
, while the computers / processors share a 85% commonality with that of the F-14's APG-71 radar
AWG-9 and APG-71 radars
The AN/AWG-9 and AN/APG-71 radars are all-weather, multi-mode X-Band pulse doppler radar systems designed for the F-14 Tomcat. It is a very long-range air-to-air system with the capability of guiding several AIM-54 Phoenix or AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles at the same time using its track while scan mode...
.
APG-70 systems were originally installed on later model F-15C/D aircraft, but have since been replaced on those aircraft by the APG-63(V)1. As with the basic APG-63, the APG-70 is no longer in production; but it is still in service on the F-15E Strike Eagle
F-15E Strike Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle is an all-weather multirole fighter, derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The F-15E was designed in the 1980s for long-range, high speed interdiction without relying on escort or electronic warfare aircraft. United States Air Force F-15E Strike...
, the Israeli F-15I and the Saudi F-15S. Also, as with APG-63, APG-70 also comes in two versions, both have identical air-to-air capabilities, but slightly different air-to-ground capabilities: APG-70 on F-15Is and F-15Ss exported to foreign customers has lower performance in that the resolution of Doppler Beam Sharpening (DBS) / Mapping / Synthetic Aparture Radar (SAR) modes for the APG-70 on F-15E of USAF is at least three times better than that of the APG-70 on F-15I and F-15S.
AN/APG-63(V)1
The APG-63(V)1 radar is a 1990s reliability/maintainability hardware redesign which also provided significant mode growth opportunities. It was designed to replace outmoded APG-63 radars installed in F-15C/D aircraft models, providing improved performance and a tenfold increase in reliability. The new radar is able to track 14 targets simultaneously while being able to simultaneously attack 6 of those. Raytheon delivered 180 APG-63(V)1 radar systems to the U.S. Air Force (4 of which have since been lost to crashes), and is on contract to deliver an additional 40 radars to the Republic of Korea Air ForceRepublic of Korea Air Force
The Republic of Korea Air Force is the air force of South Korea...
for the F-15K Slam Eagle.
AN/APG-63(V)2
The APG-63(V)2 Active Electronically Scanned ArrayActive Electronically Scanned Array
An Active Electronically Scanned Array , also known as active phased array radar is a type of phased array radar whose transmitter and receiver functions are composed of numerous small solid-state transmit/receive modules . AESAs aim their "beam" by broadcasting radio energy that interfere...
(AESA) radar has been retrofitted to 18 U.S. Air Force F-15C aircraft. This upgrade includes most of the new hardware from the APG-63(V)1, but adds an AESA to provide increased pilot situational awareness. The AESA radar has an exceptionally agile beam, providing nearly instantaneous track updates and enhanced multi-target tracking capability. The APG-63(V)2 is compatible with current F-15C weapon loads and enables pilots to take full advantage of the AIM-120 AMRAAM
AIM-120 AMRAAM
The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM , is a modern beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. Designed with the same form-factor as the previous generation of semi-active guided Sparrow missiles, it is a fire-and-forget...
's capabilities, simultaneously intiating guidance for multiple missiles to several targets widely spaced in azimuth, elevation, or range.
AN/APG-63(V)3
The APG-63(V)3 radar is a more modern variant of the APG-63(V)2, applying the same AESA technology utilized in Raytheon's APG-79APG-65, APG-73, and APG-79 radars
The AN/APG-65 and AN/APG-73 are designations for a family of all-weather multimode airborne radar systems designed by Hughes Aircraft for the F/A-18 Hornet, and used on a variety of fighter aircraft types. The APG-79 is an upgraded AESA version.These I band pulse-Doppler radar systems are...
. The (V)3 is designed for retrofit into F-15C/D and deployed in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
's new F-15SG
F-15E Strike Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle is an all-weather multirole fighter, derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The F-15E was designed in the 1980s for long-range, high speed interdiction without relying on escort or electronic warfare aircraft. United States Air Force F-15E Strike...
aircraft. Raytheon delivered the first prototype APG-63(V)3 system in June 2006. The company started work on an initial production order in October 2007.
AN/APG-82
The AN/APG-82 combines the processor of the APG-79APG-79
The AN/APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar is a new development for the United States Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft, providing a high level of aircrew situational awareness. The beam of the AESA radar provides nearly instantaneous track updates and...
used on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a twin-engine carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft. The F/A-18E single-seat variant and F/A-18F tandem-seat variant are larger and more advanced derivatives of the F/A-18C and D Hornet. The Super Hornet has an internal 20 mm gun and can carry air-to-air...
with the antenna of the APG-63(V)3 AESA being fitted on the F-15C. The new radar also includes a new cooling system and Radio Frequency Tunable Filters (RFTF). RFTF is designed to enable the F-15E radar and the electronic warfare hardware (jamming) to operate simultaneously without degrading each other. The new radar is to be used in the F-15E Radar Modernization Program (RMP). In 2009, the proposed APG-63(V)4 radar was designated APG-82.
AN/APQ-180
The APQ-180 is a derivative of the APG-70 radar, designed for installation on the AC-130ULockheed AC-130
The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily-armed ground-attack aircraft variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. The basic airframe is manufactured by Lockheed, while Boeing is responsible for the conversion into a gunship and for aircraft support...
gunship aircraft (Rockwell/Boeing modification). It uses a modified gimbaling scheme for the planar array, and an upgraded analog signal processor unit, and incorporates several enhanced (and new) air-to-ground modes.