Cassidian further increases its leading position in state-of-the-art radar technology.

The company has developed a new generation of transmit & receive modules which give the new AESA radars with electronic beam scanning (AESA = Active Electronically Scanned Array) previously unattained performance.

Thanks to the new modules, the multi-mode and multi-tasking capabilities of AESA antennas can be enhanced on a sustained basis while at the same time significantly reducing production costs.

“Our new-generation modules increase radar performance, while the cost of production is reduced by more than 30 per cent,” said Dr. Elmar Compans, Head of the Sensors & Electronic Warfare unit at Cassidian.

In contrast to conventional systems, radars based on AESA technology can perform several tasks practically simultaneously. The transmitting energy is generated directly in the antenna, namely in a multitude of transmit & receive modules (TRM), instead of in a delicate central transmitter.

With environmental qualification to IEC 60748, Cassidian now has completed the basic development of a new generation of transmit & receive modules. This milestone will pave the way for using these high-tech components in particularly demanding applications in the aerospace sector. Cassidian has optimized the industrial production of these modules using a standard design based on a modular principle. Operating Europe’s largest production line for this type of radar module, Cassidian is the pioneer of this technology in Europe.

The new technology offers so many operational advantages for the customer that Cassidian can expect AESA radars to be used in many fields of reconnaissance and surveillance in future.

The Cassidian products using the new TRMs include the Eurofighter’s future e-scan radar, the security radars in the Spexer family as well as spaceborne earth observation radars.