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Viewing report
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AESAs into Airborne Platforms
Engalco, April 2011
In spite of and in several instances because of the cutbacks in defense expenditure the avionics side of the industry is surviving almost unscathed and most parts of this segment exhibit growing markets. EW systems and radars will always be vitally important and, as well as new implementations, system upgrades are increasingly being installed on existing platforms.
In order to reflect in detail the important changes during the past two years Engalco has pursued substantial research on airborne AESAs (active electronically-scanned arrays) – the industry, technologies and markets – and has recently released its report on this subject: Airborne AESAs. This highly detailed report provides extensive data on shipments and market values for the systems and the T/R-modules (‘TRMs') including forecasts to 2017.
Major new aspects considered in detail reflect the significant impacts of the recent, typically harsh, national defense reviews and associated adverse economic environments – notably in the U.S.A. and the U.K. (also affecting France). The implications of these reviews will result in decreased annual deployments of many platforms, ranging from the F-35 fighter to aircraft carriers, but set against this scenario AESAs such as Raytheon's RACR and Northrop Grumman's SABR will be increasingly important for upgrading existing aircraft fleets.
In addition to the F-35, the EA-18G (Growler), the Eurofighter Typhoon, France's Rafale – and UVs (UAVs and UCAVs) are all important. A further very significant program is the LEMV surveillance airship. In June 2010 Northrop Grumman was awarded the contract to develop this system and more recently this prime contractor has announced it is teaming with Hybrid Air Vehicles, Ltd. of England and a team of technology leaders from 18 US states and three countries to build the LEMV. The prototype LEMV will have about 100,000 TRMs whilst the final version will implement more than seven million TRMs.
In this important AESAs update report Engalco also provides details of Israel's CAEW system, status of the F-35 “Lightning II”, systems going onto the EA-18G “Growler” and the on-going upgrades of existing platforms including F-15s and 16s. It is clear that North American markets always lead this industry sector.
Airborne AESAs (whether considered with or without the LEMV) always dominate all the “free-world” markets – typically by a factor of at least three. Shipments of airborne AESAs rise to a maximum of over 1,000 in year 2014, before settling to values just below 1,000 thereafter. Whilst total market values for AESA radar systems typically amount to some tens of billions of US dollars this report focuses more strongly on the TRMs. The total market for airborne TRMs – omitting LEMV – remains in the high hundreds of millions of US$ range. Unit prices are analyzed, forecasted and presented for TRMs covering various frequency bands. The impact of the coming strong effect of GaN MMIC implementation into TRMs is reflected in all market analyses.
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