With ground testing now complete, flight trials of the Eurofighter and ECRS Mk 2 radar will commence shortly. (BAE Systems)
BAE Systems and its programme partners are on course to fly the Leonardo European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk2 aboard a Eurofighter Typhoon testbed aircraft in the coming weeks.
Ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 running from 22 to 26 July, the prime contractor for the project to fit the new E-Scan radar aboard the Royal Air Force's (RAF's) 40 Tranche 3 Typhoon FGR4 combat aircraft said that ground trials at the company's Warton facility in northern England had been completed, ahead of the imminent commencement of flight trials.
“A programme of ground-based testing has been completed on a Eurofighter Typhoon test and evaluation aircraft equipped with the advanced new ECRS Mk 2 radar ahead of flight trials,” BAE Systems said on 19 July.
News of the milestone came seven months after BAE Systems said in January that the first ECRS Mk 2 E-Scan radar had been fitted aboard Eurofighter test aircraft ZK355/BS116 ahead of flight trials scheduled to begin later in 2024. With ZK355/BS116 the first to be fitted and flown, further aircraft will be added to the flight-test programme as it progresses.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) awarded BAE Systems in July 2023 an GBP870 million (USD1.12 billion at the time) contract for further development and integration of the ECRS Mk 2 for the RAF's Tranche 3 Typhoon fleet. This five-year award is geared at taking the radar from development to a production standard, and covers 12 radar sets in addition to the prototype set delivered for testing in April 2023.
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