Terracotta wideband AESA radar undergoes flight tests
NewsJune 23, 2021
FALLS CHURCH, Va. Northrop Grumman Corporation has flight demonstrated its new Terracotta sensor, which is designed to be a fully-digital open mission systems (OMS)-compliant wideband active electronically scanned array (AESA).
According to the company, the flight test was a follow-on to ground and flight demonstrations of Terracotta conducted last fall. This most recent flight was intended to verify Terracotta’s ability to simultaneously perform active and passive radio frequency capabilities.
Terracotta is engineered with almost 200 wideband digital channels and can be molded cooperatively or segmented for unique purposes, including electronic warfare, airborne early warning radar, active and passive sensing, and communications.
Its multifunction apertures are intended to consolidate multiple capabilities into a single sensor, decreasing both the number of apertures needed and the size, weight, and power requirements for the advanced capabilities. Sophisticated multifunction apertures like Terracotta can deploy several functions simultaneously, the company claims.
