This article first appeared in Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Interrelated technology improvements -- all involving advanced radar designs -- are driving U.S. defense budget changes and program delays in Fiscal 2011 and beyond.

Three projects in play for these new technologies are Northrop Grumman's Block 40 Global Hawk and Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance unmanned aircraft, Boeing's new P-8A patrol aircraft and potential radar upgrades to Northrop Grumman's long-serving E-8 Joint Stars ground surveillance aircraft. All of them use ground moving-target indicator (GMTI) technology to track targets, study the forensics of attacks and plot the activities of enemy networks.

Regarding the service's initiatives to slow Joint Stars upgrades and production of Block 40 Global Hawks, Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), revealed a wide-ranging technology reassessment.

"There are analyses ongoing to make the determinations and balance all the different constraints we are faced with to come up with a decision about GMTI," he says. "Block 40 Global Hawk provides GMTI capability [as do Joint Stars upgrades,] which is part of that alternative mix that programmers are developing. We have to look at the entire spectrum of capabilities and conduct an effective analysis of alternatives to determine the way ahead."

Global Hawk production may be delayed to examine some of this newer radar technology. It is certain that the P-8A will carry a Raytheon-Boeing advanced airborne sensor (AAS) radar produced in a new multibillion-dollar program. In addition, Joint Stars officials are looking at dueling Northrop Grumman and Raytheon technologies that would allow the E-8C to track walking people from high altitude.

These technology "reconsiderations" have some roots in the recent joint-combat operation of specially modified P-3C and E-8C radar surveillance aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan, say radar specialists with insight into the project and the advanced radars.

The aircraft were conducting forensic missions -- including tracking the construction, transportation and placing of improvised explosive devices for U.S. national intelligence agencies, the specialists say. The effort coordinated GMTI information and coherent change data to closely monitor and compare past and current enemy activity. The forensic products allowed prediction of events and mapping of insurgent networks and their minute-by-minute activities.

"Eagle Archer" P-3Cs -- carrying a multiband littoral surveillance radar system (LSRS) -- and E-8C Joint Stars modified with "Eagle Focus" software worked together on these special missions in 2006, although they initially did not know of each other's existence, participants say. LSRS had a 40 X 1-ft. antenna (for 40 sq. ft. of aperture) and an advantage in range from the use of Ku band. Joint Stars had a 48-sq.-ft. aperture, and its X-band operations gave an advantage in power and weather penetration.

Both had high resolution and geolocation accuracy, says a participant in the operation. "But you can't fight physics, and a smaller beam gives you an advantage," he says. "Also, LSRS had more [communications and data link] channels [for better distribution of the intelligence data]. The [intelligence agencies] fell in love with the LSRS technology."

Northrop Grumman is preparing software upgrades in its "dismounted moving-target indicator" project that allows mission crews to simultaneously conduct wide-area scan and detailed observations of more than a dozen 10-sq.-mi. patches with enough resolution to see people moving at walking speed at ranges up to 150 mi. (AW&ST Sept. 7, p. 32.) New radars can combine X band (to better penetrate moisture) and Ku band (better range), greater power output and improved processing to extend surveillance ranges beyond 100-150 naut. mi. while boosting resolution within those ranges.

There are some specifics about plans under review for the Global Hawk Block 40 unmanned aerial system. It was originally planned with the Northrop Grumman-Raytheon MP-RTIP as the radar of choice. Now Air Force officials are reviewing that decision with an eye to radar tile technology (used in the F/A-18EF and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) that allows more flexibility in antenna design. With small, active, electronically scanned array (AESA) tiles, the equivalent of a 20-ft. antenna (similar to the one carried by Joint Stars) could be constructed in the Global Hawk's existing radar canoe, say radar specialists involved in the work.

The first Block 40 was rolled out in June, and three others are in various stages of manufacture. The first Block 30, which will carry the Advanced Signals Intelligence Payload, is expected in Guam in the fall of 2010, with another to follow at NAS Sigonella, Italy, late next year. Central Command is third in line to receive the Block 30 in 2011.

The Block 40 Global Hawk is also the configuration baseline for the NATO ground surveillance program, which will use the MP-RTIP radar. Block 40 is facing budget challenges on two sides. The Fiscal 2010 request is meeting resistance from House defense appropriators, who suggest cutting a year's worth of production from the program. Senate defense appropriators funded the procurement request, and the matter is to be settled in conference committee. Also, in Fiscal 2011 budget drills at the Pentagon, planners have looked at delaying the project as well.

Ed Walby, director of business development for high-altitude, long-range systems at Northrop Grumman, says he suspects the program will not be cut in Fiscal 2011 because GMTI is already underfunded for operations in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the program could be accelerated to accommodate that need, and it would be an "easy do" to deliver a Block 40 for use in Afghanistan in one year, he says.

Walby's optimism may be met with skepticism on Capitol Hill. The MP-RTIP program already suffered at least a nine-month delay and developmental problems. Synthetic aperture radar and GMTI modes have been developed, but concurrent modes still are not fully tested. Work on the concurrent radar modes should be finished next month, and developmental testing will follow, he says.

Flight testing of the Block 20/30 restarted last week at Edwards AFB, Calif., says Walby. It was on hold since a May 28 incident when a spoiler malfunction prompted an unscheduled landing of the aircraft. Prior to the incident, testing had bogged down owing to scheduling issues and the convergence of needs for developmental testing, as well as acceptance testing for production vehicles. Production trials will now be managed from Beale AFB, Calif., where Global Hawks are being based, allowing Edwards to focus on Block 30 testing and beyond, he says.

A multibillion-dollar contract for the P-8 Boeing-Raytheon AAS radar has been signed. It is a follow-on to Raytheon's LSRS technology that is flying on Navy P-3Cs.

The Air Force and Navy are both looking for alternatives to first-generation electronically scanned radar technology that is nearly 17 years old. Instead of an array that scans one side and then rolls mechanically to the other, contractors are offering arrays that scanned both side simultaneously in X and Ku bands.

How successfully and quickly the introduction of these and other new intelligence-gathering technologies is accomplished will be guided by an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance summit slated for Sept. 29 and led by U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Gen. Norton Schwartz, chief of staff. Establishment of ISR as a major command is among the issues to be considered.

"We have to get to the point in our acquisition system where we are much more rapid and agile in terms of delivering the desired capability," says Deptula. For example, "with a decision to proceed with the MQ-X follow-on capability in 2009 and following all the rules, you have [initial operating capability] by 2019. We have to change."

In fact, that change already is underway.

"We just finished a one-year effort to build an ISR flight plan. It identifies all the ISR capabilities resident in the Air Force today, what is in the POM [budget planning] and what's beyond the POM."

The concept is to connect the "ISR flight plan" to each of the combatant and major commands so that they can have direct access to the database and thereby generate requirements immediately instead of once a year. With that continuous flow of information, ISR officials expect to rapidly adapt and modify modernization plans to meet the latest combat needs.

Air Force officials agree that modernization will be difficult because of tight budgets. And they will have to make decisions between upgrading older technologies and targeted investments in new technology. Some programs will be delayed or cut as the Air Force reassesses its needs, matches them against technical advances and fits them into existing budgets.

Photo: Northrop Grumman