Last week Northrop Grumman [NOC] unveiled its new Vanguard multi-function, modular, open architecture radar system, touting its flexibility to scale up and apply to a plethora of platforms.

Vanguard consists of individual panels about one square foot each, with each panel being a complete radar in itself. Each panel can act as an independent radar, or multiple panels can be connected to make a single larger radar array. The system is being aimed at air, sea, ground, and space-based capabilities, although it is being initially tested and marketed for air intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

A model five-panel Vanguard radar system, with one panel removed.  Each panel can operate independently or as part of a larger radar.  (Image: Northrop Grumman)
A model five-panel Vanguard radar system, with one panel removed. Each panel can operate independently or as part of a larger radar. (Image: Northrop Grumman)

Curtis Pearson, director for strategic programs at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, told Defense Daily in an interview on Monday that the company is creating the capability for wide-band radar on each panel or tile of Vanguard.

In this instantiation of the system, Pearson said this gives the Vanguard both an X-band and KU-band capability. The X-band helps see long range targets through adverse weather while KU-band “is very valuable for shorter ranges, higher resolution. Things like tracking very slow-moving vehicles or dismounted- people moving through an environment.”

He confirmed the company is looking at unmanned platforms like the RQ-4 Global Hawk or MQ-4 Triton, which could well-utilize a KU-band system. However, Vanguard is generally being designed for a variety of air platforms ranging from business jet-class to high and medium latitude unmanned aircraft and high-altitude manned aircraft.

The company has conducted 10 flight tests of Vanguard using a company test aircraft, starting April 2017 out of its Baltimore, Md. facility (Defense Daily, June 16, 2017).

Pearson said while most first test flights of a new system just check that it works after takeoff, this first flight conducted its first real-time processing on a flight using ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) map modes.

Pearson touted this flight test as going beyond the standard type of turning things on during a flight to make sure it all works before landing. “We were actually able to do ground moving tracking as well as the creation of SAR images on that first flight.”

The flight tests have used a four-panel unit, with larger radars created by combining more panels. Pearson said each panel “essentially becomes the major building blocks of the radar.”

He argued one benefit is each panel can be replaced much more easily than standard radars. In standard large radars, the array has to be removed from the unit, shipped to the facility, repaired there, recalibrated at the factory, then sent back to the flight line where it will then be reinstalled on an aircraft.

In contrast, Pearson said with Vanguard you can remove one panel, replace it, and the new one will be recalibrated on the flight line.

He also highlighted that since both small and large Vanguard arrays are made of small units the work can be done at the already-hot fighter jet active electronically scanned array (AESA) production lines along radars like the APG-81 used in the F-35 and APG-83 used in the F-16 and F/A-18s.

Pearson said this allows Northrop Grumman to lower cost faster and drop learning curves faster “because we can share everything form the personnel to the processes to the test facilities to the equipment that we’ve already installed for those other programs.”

The back of a Vanguard radar panel. (Photo: Northrop Grumman)
The back of a Vanguard radar panel. (Photo: Northrop Grumman)

Moreover, engineering, production, and flight tests would be co-located, “so it saves us a lot of time and cost having everybody together in that one factory.”

He noted that fits within the company’s current capacity to support the types of programs they are looking at with Vanguard.

Vanguard also features open architecture capabilities that “allowed for a rapid flight integration” and the ability to use third-party software and interface with the Open Mission Suite Battle Management Command and Control system. This lets the user add software and new modes from other developers.

Pearson said each panel has a digital output that gives Vanguard processing flexibility and the ability to use commercial processing capabilities on the back end. He said this flexibility on software and modes combined with the easy replacement process “significantly reduces the lifecycle costs” of the radar.

Paul Kalafos, vice president for surveillance and electromagnetic maneuver warfare at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement Sept. 20 that Vanguard redefines how they can produce radars and its “modular radar panels are a building block for a multitude of future radar aperture applications.”

Pearson said Northrop Grumman is basically ready to start production of Vanguard now and they would normally view a build time taking two to three years for a complete system, from kicking off production to getting systems out the door. He noted “we’ve gotten through all its initial testing and all the kind of production readiness that we normally do.”