The industrial challenges of airborne AESA radars

AESA technology has been an important development for the Radar industry. The AESA has dramatically increased the operational capability of modern Radars compared to the mechanically scanned Radars. The first generations of AESA Radar used to have higher costs of production. At this time, that has been accepted for two reasons: better performance and the higher reliability of these AESA systems finally make lower their total cost of ownership during their lifespan. But now the aim is to reduce as much as possible the cost of production of AESA Radars. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of achievements in the production of active antenna Radar. The industrial issues associated with the development of AESA Radars within THALES Airborne Systems and the industrialization solutions under development are presented.