In December 1999, Raytheon Systems Ltd was awarded a contract for the development of the UK Ministry of Defense Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR). The system, which includes five Bombadier Global Express business jet aircraft fitted with a derivative of the Raytheon ASARS-2 radar, is an airborne battlefield or ground surveillance radar system.
The primary objective of ASTOR is to deliver to the army command wide area identification, quantity, direction and speed of hostile ground forces. Optional optical equipment can provide additional imagery that can be transmitted in real-time via secure data links to the ground–based processing stations.
Signal processors develop the radar data into visual images which can be displayed and exploited by the airborne mission crew or transmitted to either image manipulation ground equipment or to other areas via secures links, satellite communications and ground networks.
For the protection of the ASTOR airborne platform, the aircraft has installed a full suite of counter-measures. Our contribution is the Defensive Aids Sub-System (DASS) that is embedded in the Defensive System Manager (DSM), which controls the counter-measure facilities available for the defense of the aircraft.
For the purpose of equipment commonality, spares reduction and compliance with interoperability requirements, the DASS is also installed on the MR4A Nimrod 2000 surveillance platform.
Technology insertion will reduce the risks associated with supporting and maintaining this type of program during the expected long In-Service life span. The first such upgrade has already been implemented successfully and demonstrated the significant benefits of using open-systems COTS hardware architectures linked into COTS operating system software.