Euroradar CAPTOR
CAPTOR-E Demonstrator
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| Country of origin | Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom |
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| Type | Solid-state, mechanically scanned array radar; active electronically scanned array radar |
| Frequency | X-band |
The Euroradar CAPTOR is a next-generation mechanical multi-mode pulse Doppler radar designed for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Development of the CAPTOR lead to the Airborne Multirole Solid State Active Array Radar (AMSAR) project which eventually produced the CAESAR (CAPTOR Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar), now known as CAPTOR-E.
Development started as the ECR-90 at Ferranti's Edinburgh radar labs, home of many British radar systems. The ECR-90 was based on the Blue Vixen radar which had been developed for the BAE Sea Harrier FA2. The selection of the radar had become a major stumbling block in the EFA project, as the Eurofighter Typhoon was known as the time. Britain, Italy and Spain supported the Ferranti-led ECR-90, while West Germany preferred the MSD2000, based on the US AN/APG-65 radar family being developed in a collaboration between Hughes, AEG and GEC.
An agreement was reached after the British Defence Secretary Tom King assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg that the British government would underwrite the project and allow GEC to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its troubled parent. Ferranti's labs became the new GEC Ferranti in 1990, and then BAE Systems Avionics when GEC's various military electronics divisions - Ferranti, Marconi and Elliott Brothers - were merged.
Hughes sued GEC for $600 million for its role in the selection of the EFA and alleged that it used Hughes technology in the ECR-90 when it took over Ferranti. It later dropped this allegation and was awarded $23 million; the court judged that the MSD-2000 "had a real or substantial chance of succeeding had GEC not tortuously intervened... and had the companies, which were bound by the Collaboration Agreement, faithfully and diligently performed their continuing obligations thereunder to press and promote the case for MSD-2000."
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