Pictures: EADS flies first Eurofighter with upgraded AESA radar

EADS has conducted the first test flight of a Eurofighter carrying an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) front end for the aircraft’s Euroradar consortium Captor sensor; a potential key element of further enhancements to the Typhoon during its latter Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 production phases.

EADS’s DA5 development aircraft conducted its first in a series of successful test flights with the Caesar antenna from EADS’s Manching site near Munich on 8 May.

“Completion of this successful flight programme is the culmination of four years cooperative work between the major European radar suppliers and Eurofighter,” says Euroradar partner Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems.