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Bench Talk for Design Engineers

Bench Talk

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Bench Talk for Design Engineers | The Official Blog of Mouser Electronics


One Size Fits None
On October 7, 2014 in RF by Barry Manz
Barry Manz

If you work in or follow the defense industry, you may have sensed a trend toward multifunctionality in U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) thinking – that everything it deploys in the future should perform multiple functions. It’s a logical concept when money is scarce, but it rarely works, especially if the functions to be combined are very different from each other. Smartphones, which today do everything but keep you healthy (unless you have iOS8), are a rare exception.

The Active Electronically Steered Array (AESA) radar architecture is great example of multifunctionality gone wild. On the face of it, AESA allows the broadcast of powerful radar signals without detection. The technology itself is stunningly competent, so much so that DoD wants to use it for electronic warfare as well – all in the same system. The problem stems from the fact that EW systems cover broad swaths of spectrum, and radar systems operate over much narrower bandwidths, so achieving optimum performance in one seems likely to compromise the other. Satisfying the needs of both will be very difficult without trade-offs, which are potentially lethal.

On a much larger scale, DoD has determined that its future has no room for single-function aircraft. So it has said goodbye to the A-10 Warthog close-support aircraft that, while ancient and slow (read, likely to be shot down), is a fire-breathing monster that has legions of fans among those who’ve flown (or been saved) by them. The EC-130H Compass Call aircraft, whose primary function is to blind every enemy air defense and communications system, which it has done superbly since 1982, is also on the chopping block or is at least likely to face a reduction in number.

 

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will replace these two aircraft. From its inception, the F-35 was conceived as a platform that could perform multiple roles better than previous single-mission aircraft. But will the F-35 be able to perform close air support, jamming, and multiple other roles equally well? And will it be truly stealthy for decades in the face of advancing radar technology? I hope so, because it may be the last manned fighter the U.S. ever builds.



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Barry Manz is president of Manz Communications, Inc., a technical media relations agency he founded in 1987. He has since worked with more than 100 companies in the RF and microwave, defense, test and measurement, semiconductor, embedded systems, lightwave, and other markets. Barry writes articles for print and online trade publications, as well as white papers, application notes, symposium papers, technical references guides, and Web content. He is also a contributing editor for the Journal of Electronic Defense, editor of Military Microwave Digest, co-founder of MilCOTS Digest magazine, and was editor in chief of Microwaves & RF magazine.


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Tagged With: A-10 Warthog, AESA, DoD, EC-130H, F-35 , Lockheed Martin

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