Philip Smart | Adelaide
A collaborative research program between Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the US Navy has resulted in upgrades to the F/A-18F Super Hornet’s radar warning receiver, that will benefit both Australian and US Navy aircraft.
The Advanced Passive Surveillance Capability program, started in 2008, has improved the receiver’s ability to locate and identify threats.
The upgrade can be applied as a software update.
Assistant Minister for Defence, Stuart Robert, said the US Navy had considered the program and teaming to be highly successful and had shown interest in undertaking similar collaborative projects in the future.
“As these programs evolve, it is expected there will be a number of opportunities to provide Australian industry with technology they can include within their proposed solutions for these programs,” Mr Robert said.
“The work conducted under this project includes signal processing and parameter estimation algorithms and analysis tools for electronic warfare application, which will be relevant to a number of Australian Defence programs.
It took forward-looking research to develop the software upgrade and then some smart thinking to apply it to a real system in a fast jet.”