Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) for Royal Malaysian Air Force

Introduction

Study was carried out and concluded that there were shortfall with present RMAF capability in air defense roles. This includes the ability to provide support and radar coverage for areas not able to be covered by ground based radar. In addition to the RMAF requirements, the national requirements for air and sea surveillance during peacetime against illegal activities and border incursion were also identified.

At present, RMAF does not have the full capability to support the operational requirements as required by the Air Force Doctrine. Dedicated AEW&C aircraft was identified as the most practical solution to the inadequacy. The aircraft shall be able to be operated from any RMAF Air Base or any airfield available in Malaysia. The aircraft shall also be able to transit to the operational area with minimum transit flight time. The AEW&C platforms short-listed for considerations are Embraer EMB-145, SAAB 2000, E2-C Hawkeye 2000, P-3 Orion AEW&C and B-737 Wedgetail AEW&C.

The AEW&C system required to fulfill RMAF operations requirement mainly consist of Command, Control and Communication (C3) system, Airborne Surveillance Radar and Electronic Support Measures System. The characteristics and capabilities of AEW&C system to fulfill the above are as follows:

• A radar system capable to provide 360 degrees detection coverage and detection range of more than 200 nm.
• Robust and reliable radar system that is able to function even with several transmitter and receiver element unserviceable.
• Radar system ability to provide 3 dimension detection with accurate information on direction, range, height and speed of Air, Land and Maritime targets.
• Radar system shall have low side-lobe level incorporated with Electronic Protective Measures (EPM) capabilities used to combat Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) or Electronic Jamming and Anti Radiation Missile.
• Possess multimode capability to detect air, land and maritime targets simultaneously.
• Capable to provide fully automated data fusion of active and passive sensors which include Primary Radar (PSR), Secondary Surveillance Radar/ Identification of Friend and Foe (SSR/IFF) and Electronic Support Measures (ESM). (Multi Sensor Data Fusion).
• The AEW&C C3 system integration shall include secure Air to Air, Air to Ground/Surface communication and data link.
• Equipped with Electronic Support Measure (ESM) system utilize for passive surveillance, emitter identification with Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) analysis capabilities, threat warning and passive ranging and targeting. ESM system characteristics are as follows:
  
  (1) Frequency Coverage - 0.5 to 18 GHz to located airborne, land and maritime based emitter.
  
  (2) Emitter Direction Finding and passive emitter ranging /geo-location.
  
  (3) On board ELINT type signal analysis with emitter Radio Frequency (RF) parameter recording and playback capability.
  
  (4) System integration with Counter Measures Dispensing System (CMDS).
  
  (5) Include ground ELINT type signal analysis - Electronic Warfare Support System.

• The C3 system of the AEW&C shall be able to perform autonomous Control and Reporting function with capability to relay Recognize Air Picture (RAP) of its area operation coverage to Sector Operation Centers (SOC) and Regional Air Defence Operation Centers. (Network Centric)

Characteristics and Capabilities of AEW&C Platform

• Ability to be deployed to area of operation within a short time frame with short scramble time.
• Possess good endurance and time on station of 8 hours within designated area of operation covering Peninsular and East Malaysia typically in the operating range radius of 200 Nm.
• Possess dash speed not less than 0.5 M for operation in Mixed Force Package (MFP) with the RMAF fighter elements and quick retrograde to defended area to ensure survivability.
• Platform shall be able to operate independently without or with limited Ground Support Equipment possibly utilizing civil or commercial aviation maintenance and logistic support available throughout civil or military airport as forward operating base during peace or crisis operation.
• The AEW&C platform shall be able to be equipped with Self Protection System (SPS) which comprise of Missile Warning System (MWS) and CMDS to ensure platform survivability. The CMDS shall be capable to be installed with chaff, flares and active expandable decoy and be fully integrated with the ESM and MWS.
• Saab 2000 AEW&C aircraft was based on the regional jet version. The aircraft was a propeller driven with a maximum take off weight of 23,000 kg. The AEW&C systems were developed by Ericsson. The primary radar utilized an electronically scanned array mounted on the aircraft dorsal.
  

Limitations

During the evaluation, certain limitations were encountered which limited the extent of the evaluation. The limitations and its impact to the evaluation are listed below.

• Only a basic platform without dorsal antenna was used for platform flight evaluation with a total of 3.0 hours (1 hour demonstration flight and 2 hours of in-flight evaluation). The available flight time was sufficient to carry out the evaluation. The evaluation covers qualitative and quantitative assessment of the platform.
• Swedish Air Force Saab 340 AEW&C was used for AEW&C System evaluation. This evaluation took approximately 4 flight hrs. The evaluation was limited to the aircraft primary surveillance radar system only. The platform was not equipped with the support system such as ESM, Secure IFF Interrogator, Air to Air Data link and Self Protection System.
• The team has total control on the evaluation profile which was modified accordingly due to fuel consideration on the Viggen fighters as the cooperative targets. Full capability of the radar was not exploited due different radar system will be offered to the RMAF.
• It is important to note that the Swedish Air Force utilized the Saab 340 as a remote sensing platform where all information gathered during flight will be transmitted back to SOC. Therefore the Saab 340 was only equipped with one technician console rather than multiple operator consoles. As the AEW&C system proposed for RMAF was only on paper (no physical existence of the platform with AEW&C system available for evaluation), many hours were used for discussions and clarifications of items as listed in the Requirement Breakdown Structure. The time available for discussion and feedback was sufficient to cover all aspects of the RBS.

Objectives

The primary objective of this evaluation was to conduct an operational evaluation of the Saab 2000 AEW&C system and platform against specific mission requirements. This evaluation addressed the following areas:

• Airspace and Surface Surveillance capability for Situational Awareness and Assessment.
• Force Coordination, Assignment and Control capability.
• Electronic Warfare and Survivability capability.
• Platform and Deployment capability.
• Logistic Support, Maintenance and Training.

Note: The detail of the evaluation on sensors equipments are classified

Summary

Overall assessment and evaluation on the SAAB 2000 AEW&C system as a whole, it was found that the system does not meet the RMAF prescribe capabilities and concept of operation required. The platform characteristic and attribute however fulfill the operation requirements.

The ERIEYE radar system proposed to be equipped to the SAAB 2000 and the one operational on the Embraer EMB-145 operates in S band is vulnerable to attenuation problem or lost of propagation energy especially in high humidity Malaysian environment. The situation would further deteriorate if the aircraft is to operate in adverse weather condition. The effect above would result reduction in radar range thus limiting the early warning and identification range.

Although some ground radar operates in this frequency band it is still able to generate enough power available on the ground with further amplification to overcome RF energy propagation lost which contribute to reduction in range. Platform power source will be limited in overcoming this problem.

The radar operating in the S band would also be susceptible or vulnerable to electronic counter measure (ECM) or radar jamming and also anti radiation missile with passive seeker head or receiver designed to look within the ERIEYE - S band wavelength and are available in the world market.

The design of the ERIEYE does not have 360 degrees radar coverage and with 30 degrees blind zone forward and aft the platform would be greatly vulnerable to attack.

Risk Factor Consideration. Among other factors to be considered are the overall risk factors that include system integration, supportability and maintainability. Major systems of the SAAB 2000 AEW&C are of Swedish origin except for the engines; hence the above mentioned risk factors would be marginal since all are controlled by SAAB Corp.

However, one of prime concerned is the limited numbers of SAAB 2000 aircraft available in the market which are no longer in production despite the vendors guarantee to support until a total of only five aircraft remain operational throughout the world. If the SAAB 2000 AEW&C is selected then the RMAF would be the only user of such system which includes HES 21 RHWR/ESM

Above is the photo of stored Saab 2000. The AEW&C program for the Royal Malaysian Air Force is the refurbish present Saab 2000.

Above is the photo of Saab 2000 which had been structurally damaged especially at the bottom area of the fuselage and the engines including propellers. This aircraft is actually claimed to be written off but Malaysia Air Force will take it as part of the program after refurbishment carried by Saab and to be used as AEW&C. Somebody is going to be a billionare!!!!

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