FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0405.PDF
Surveillance need for an aircraft that, as a minimum, operates at 37,000ft (11,280m) but it prefers an aircraft with a 45,000ft ceiling. Here, the Northrop Grumman/Gulf- stream team claims a clear advantage. The Gulfstream family of aircraft regularly oper ates at the higher altitude, and the G450 is expected to be rated to 45,000ft upon certi fication later this year. The ERJ-145, on the other hand, has been demonstrated to oper ate at 45,000ft, but normal ceiling is 37,OOOft. Embraer is planning to certify the aircraft at 41,000ft in 2005. Another performance requirement calls for the aircraft to be able to deploy any where within 72h and sustain operations for one month. Lockheed Martin and Embraer expect this requirement to be a top selling point for the ERJ-145, which boasts a 99% dispatch reliability rate, 12 maintenance centres worldwide and about 750 aircraft in service. Anastacio Katsanos, head of defence strategy for Embraer, says airline ERJ-145s fly 2,000h each year, versus about 500h annually for Gulfstream. Katsanos adds that ACS programme officials have said the RC-7/RC-12 fleet flies about l,000h per year during peacetime and up to 2,500h annu ally during wartime. Both airframe contenders have devel oped militarised variants for various armed forces. Sweden and Israel have taken deliv ery of Gulfstream jets modified as intelli gence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. Mexico, Greece and Brazil have ordered surveillance and maritime patrol versions of the ERJ-145. Eight aircraft are already in service as part of Brazil's SIVAM Amazon surveillance system. Upfront savings If cost is the determining factor, however, the programme is up for grabs. It may depend on how the army defines and mea sures lifecycle cost. With a roughly $20 million list price, the ERJ-145 offers signif icant upfront savings in comparison to a Gulfstream G450 list price that starts at $33.5 million. In fact, the ERJ-145's lower sale price helped to sway Lockheed Martin to take the regional jet option. Northrop Grumman and Gulfstream, however, say their bid is cheaper if the army analyses the lifecycle cost of the fleet. Gulfstream has claimed the more robust design of its business jet offers a $200 mil lion operational cost saving over 20 years compared to the ERJ-145. Finally, the army has stated a need for an aircraft with a 4,000km range, a measure ment that falls well within the G450's per formance specifications. The ERJ-145, how ever, has a maximum range of about 2,900km. It is not clear if the aircraft's range is among the programme's key performance A global su network is a major selling point for the ERJ-145 parameters, or is a matter of preference, like a 45,000ft ceiling. The army wants a platform that can directly communicate to a broad range of users, including other services. The ACS is expected to allow tactical commanders at various levels to know the locations of friendly and hostile forces at all times. Not surprisingly, the two competing teams promise to deliver an interoperable solu tion, but are relying on different strengths. Lockheed Martin has touted its close links to the next-generation Distributed Common Ground Station-Army 10.2 (DCGS-A), which will serve as the primary ground-based hub for ACS sensor data. The army awarded a $500 million contract to a Lockheed Martin/Raytheon team last year to begin developing the system. Lockheed Martin also is intimately familiar with the links required by the navy's EP-3 fleet and the company has also teamed with acquired subsidiary Orincon, which is involved in the design of the army's family of net worked ground vehicles and unmanned sys tems called the Future Combat System. Harris is Lockheed Martin's lead partner for developing the ACS communications archi tecture and integrating an L-3 common data link. Argon is working on developing the critical communications intelligence sensor for the Lockheed Martin team. "If cost is a deter mining factor, the programme is up for grabs. It may depend on how the army defines and measures lifecycle cost" But Northrop Grumman is largely devel oping the ACS communications architec ture in-house, relying on the advantage of direct experience from linking missions systems aboard the army's existing ISR fleets - the RC-7 and RC-12 - to ground- based data hubs. BAE Systems has been selected to provide sensors for signals intel ligence and, ironically, communications The navy's intelligence, which has been in limbo ERJ-145s since the army dropped the BAE-led LBSS. would have The L-3 common datalink has been fewer selected by both teams as the main line-of- consoles sight and satellite transmitter. Northrop than the Grumman's Electronic Systems sector is EP-3sthey leading the team. • are replacing 42 13-19 APRIL 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
