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The AWACS Story

The AWACS Story . William A. Skillman Westinghouse Retiree April 24, 2013. The Need for AWACS. 1962 – Air Force AEW Pulse Radar (EC-121 Warning Star) blind to low-flying targets Pulse Doppler developing technology offered look-down capability:

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The AWACS Story

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  1. The AWACS Story William A. Skillman Westinghouse Retiree April 24, 2013

  2. The Need for AWACS 1962 – Air Force AEW Pulse Radar (EC-121 Warning Star) blind to low-flying targets Pulse Doppler developing technology offered look-down capability: Westinghouse: BOMARC, F-4J (F-4 A/C) Single Target radars, APQ-81-Track-While-Scan (U.S. Navy) Hughes: F-15 General Electric/Northrop Grumman: E-2, Hawkeye, carrier AEW 1963 USAF TAC & ADC issued SOR-206 “Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)” AEW = Airborne Early Warning SOR = Specific Operational Requirement

  3. Response to SOR 206 AIRFRAME Proposals: Boeing, Douglas, Lockheed RADAR Proposals: Westinghouse, Hughes, Raytheon, GE, 3 others AIR FORCE: SAB determined proof of concept needed, ASD formulated Overland Technology Program(ORT) DOD funded ORT program – 1964 SAB=Air Force Scientific Advisory Board ASD=AF Aeronautical Systems Division (Wright-Pat) DOD=Department of Defense

  4. ORT Aircraft – EC121-1966 Three Aircraft with scaled radars: Westinghouse–High PRF (Pulse Repetition Frequency) Hughes – Medium PRF Raytheon – Low PRF Radar Antenna mounted in lower radome

  5. ORT Antenna in EC-121 RadomeLow sidelobe slotted waveguide array

  6. Results of ORT Flight Tests 1968 Raytheon and GE dropped 1968-70 AWACS Support Program to develop critical radar technologies 1970 Boeing selected as “prime” contractor 1970 Radar Fly-off initiated: WECO and Hughes design & build Brassboard radars

  7. Brassboard Fly-off Dec. 1971- Radars delivered to Boeing - Seattle 1972 - Radars installed in 2 Boeing 707s Mar.-Sep. 1972 Radar Test Flights Westinghouse: 49 flights, 300 hours Oct. 1972 Flight test results and DDT& E proposals resulted in Westinghouse win

  8. Westinghouse Brassboard Radar

  9. AWACS Brassboard Antenna Slotted Waveguide Planar Array Low Sidelobes to minimize ground clutter Electronic Steering in Elevation for height finding

  10. Brassboard Aircraft

  11. The Road to Production Post-Win: Airborne Tracking Demo - 6 flights VIP flights Andrews AFB Jan. 1973 Full Scale Production Authorized 1974 Jamming Vulnerability “Adequate” 1975 Production Radar Flight test begun Oct. 1976 1st Prod. Radar delivered to Boeing Mar. 1977 1st E-3A, Sentry, delivered to A.F. May 1978 Initial Operational Capability - 6 A/C

  12. 1980 Icelandic Odyssey! Balto. > Tinker > Keflavik> England + Reverse Purpose: observe performance of improvement

  13. Who has 707 AWACS? U.S.A.F. AN/APY-1 Active: …........................................31 Scrap (TS-3 – BB A/C).................... 1 Crashes (Nellis & Elmendorf AFB)..2 NATO AN/APY-2 Active: …........................................17 Crash (Greece) …............................1 U.K. …..................................................7 France ….............................................4 Saudi Arabia …....................................5 TOTAL..........................................68

  14. Recent AWACS Variants Boeing 707 out of production Boeing 767 Japan 4 Phased Array – Wedgetail -Boeing 737 Australia 6 Turkey 4 South Korea 4

  15. AWACS Deployments Saudi Arabia – Yemen Desert Storm - Iraq Allied Force - Kosovo Enduring Freedom - Afganistan Iraqi Freedom Odyssey Dawn/Unified Protector - Libya Noble Eagle – Homeland defense Humanitarian Relief – Hurricanes Rita & Katrina

  16. Non-US AWACS Radars These countries are the only exporters, besides the U.S., of an AWACS type radar. Russia IL-76 or A50 or Mainstay Sweden – SAAB, Ericsson, Erieye China – KJ-2000 (mod IL-76) Israel – Israeli Aircraft Industries – Phalcon Numerous radar/aircraft combinations are being supplied to other countries.

  17. References Much of the material was drawn from: “Development of the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) Radar” by Wm. A. Skillman and Robert E. Cowdery, recipients of the IEEE AESS 1995 Pioneer Award for the development of AWACS. Published in the IEEE Trans. on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Vol 31, No. 4, Oct. 1995. For a later version with color pictures, as well as this slide show, see the author's website at “http://SkillmansofAmerica.com” Link to my home page top right Here you can also find two eye-witness accounts of the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 and a slide show “Remembering the Hindenburg” by the author.

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