EO/IRST 레이시온, F-22 랩터 센서 업그레이드 계약 체결 (신형 IRST?)

[위종민]

레이시온이 10억 달러에 F-22의 센서를 업그레이드하는 계약을 체결했습니다. 

상세 내역은 불명이지만 2025년 예산 요청서에 F-22용 신형 IRST가 포함돼 있었다고 합니다. 

RTX Raytheon wins billion-dollar contract for F-22 sensors | Shephard (shephardmedia.com)

RTX Raytheon wins billion-dollar contract for F-22 sensors

2nd September 2024 - 15:05 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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The F-22 will be upgraded to increase its active lifespan (Photo: US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Vernon Young Jr.)

The details of the sensor upgrade have yet to be formalised but could involve infrared search and tracking.

The US Air Force has contracted with RTX Raytheon to upgrade sensors on the F-22 Raptor aircraft at a cost of US$1 billion.

The sensor upgrade is part of a wider F-22 improvement mission that will require $7.8 billion in investments before 2030. The sensor upgrades are designed to extend the F-22’s service life. The modernisation roadmap for the stealth fighter will also include improved connectivity and weapons, new cryptography, an expanded open architecture and an advanced threat warning receiver to make the aircraft fitter for more years in service, particularly in the Indo-Pacific Command area.

A total of 32 of the US Air Force’s older Block 20 F-22 units are being retired, but the remaining 154 have been scheduled for the upgrade plan.

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The new sensors will form part of a rapid prototyping and fielding process which it has been hoped will carry through into the Next Generation of Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems.

US Air Force Brigadier General Jason Voorheis, the programme executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, explained: “The Raptor team recently conducted six flight test efforts to demo and assess advanced sensors on the F-22 required to complete an ongoing rapid prototyping MTA for the programme.” 

MTA means Middle Tier of Acquisition and is another way of saying the sensors would be rapidly prototyped and fielded.

Quite what the RTX Raytheon contract will actually deliver remains opaque as of the announcement date, although new Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensors for the F-22 were confirmed on the 2025 budget request for the programme. Such IRST sensors would represent an upgrade that the F-22 was initially due to carry, but which were originally dropped from its specification for budgetary reasons.

[백선호]

1980년대에 개발할 때는 레이다 커버리지 240도에 IRST도 요구했다고 하네요.

https://cafe.daum.net/NTDS/515G/2414

[백선호]

https://cafe.daum.net/NTDS/515G/2773

[위종민]

240도씩 보려면 레이더 플레이트를 세 개를 단다는 건가? 싶었는데 역시나...

지금도 저런 방식을 안 쓰는 걸 보면 가격도 가격이고 전력 & 냉방 소요를 감당하기 어렵거나 한 것 같습니다.