Following a successful acceptance test, HENSOLDT has delivered the second active antenna for the Captor-E radar system. Ready for series production, manufacturing the active electronically scanned array (AESA) will begin at the HENSOLDT factory in Ulm, Germany, with delivery of the first radar system planned by mid-2019, later than the original schedule, which was the end of 2018.

The Captor-E is an upgrade to the Captor radar — a mechanically steered, pulse Doppler radar — used on the Eurofighter. The AESA combined with flexible radar resource management will improve detection and enable simultaneous multi-target tracking, missile guidance and situational awareness.

Since the Eurofighter’s nose is larger than that of comparable fighters, the Captor-E antenna is larger and “more powerful” than that of competing aircraft, according to HENSOLDT. The Captor-E radar can also be mechanically rotated, increasing the detection area and the field of view, compared to other AESA radars.

A €1 billion contract to develop the Captor-E was signed on 19 November 2014. The radar is being developed by the Euroradar consortium, comprising Leonardo, Indra and HENSOLDT. The consortium has produced more than 400 of the current-generation Captor radars.

During the spring of 2018, the Captor-E successfully completed two flight campaigns at British Aerospace Systems in Warton and at Airbus Defence and Space in Manching, meeting the requirements of the Critical Design Review (CDR).

A German Ministry of Defense report issued in March, 2018, said the development program was 13 months late, with a “very high risk” that it would miss the initial delivery scheduled for late 2018. At the time, the Euroradar consortium disagreed with the report, saying the program was on schedule.

HENSOLDT is a German company acquired from Airbus by private equity firm KKR in 2017. HENSOLDT’s main markets are radar, optoelectronics and avionics. The company says it operates one of the largest cleanroom production lines for RF components in Europe.