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The mast-mounted AN/APG-78 radar lacks the range to match the maximum distance of the Rafael-Lockheed Spike Non-Line-of-Sight missile.
The U.S. Army will evaluate a new kind of sensor next year on the Boeing AH-64E Apache, but its pilotage and targeting capabilities could be adopted across the service’s rotorcraft fleet.
Facing increasingly lethal threats to slower and less stealthy aircraft over battlefields, Army leaders are reconsidering the kinds of sensors future rotorcraft will need to fly lower and faster while other rotorcraft in the fleet fire larger missiles at targets dozens of miles beyond the limits of the service’s current arsenal.
- Boeing AH-64E tapped as surrogate platform
- AESA demonstration planned for late 2025
In the past, the Army required different kinds of sensors to help rotorcraft crews navigate around hazards and aim their missiles. This time, the service hopes to consolidate those functions into a single active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.
A standard AH-64E will be available from September to December 2025 at the U.S. Army Redstone Test Center in Alabama for AESA radar suppliers to demonstrate their sensors’ capabilities.
But the AH-64E has been selected only as a surrogate platform. The AESA radar also will be evaluated for integration on the Bell Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk and Boeing CH-47F Chinook, the Army said in a request for information released Nov. 20.
The demonstrator radars will be installed on the AH-64E’s weapons pylon, likely to minimize integration work compared with a nose- or mast-mounted placement.
Over a three-week period allotted to each radar supplier, the Army will evaluate the sensor against a wide range of tasks, from supporting nap-of-the-Earth flight routes and landing in degraded visual environments to identifying and tracking moving targets on the ground and in the air.
Even radars not yet equipped with the software modes required to perform each of these tasks are welcome at the demonstration.
“The intent of the demonstration is to showcase current technology, not to dictate performance requirements,” the Army solicitation said.
The demonstration event comes amid continuing AESA radar technology improvements, with the first generation of large, liquid-cooled arrays giving way to smaller and lighter radars featuring gallium-nitride semiconductors that require simpler cooling systems. Raytheon, for example, had proposed its PhantomStrike AESA radar for the now-canceled Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, promising a marked expansion in detection range.
As the sensors gain in capability, so do the weapons. The Army fielded the AN/APG-78 Longbow radar in the late 1990s for a variant of the AH-64D Apache with a range matching the 8-km (5-mi.) capability of the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missile. The Army now equips the AH-64 fleet with the Rafael-Lockheed Spike Non-Light-of-Sight (NLOS) missile as the interim solution for its Long-Range Precision Munition requirement. The change upgrades the weapons range of the Apache to 32 km, far beyond the capabilities of its mast-mounted targeting sensor.
Army leaders have said the targeting for the Spike NLOS would come from off-board platforms, including the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. MQ-1C Gray Eagle and an emerging class of flying Launched Effects systems. An AESA-based targeting system could give the AH-64 an onboard sensor with a range matching or exceeding that of the Spike NLOS, especially against aerial targets.
During next year’s AESA radar demonstration, the Army will evaluate how the sensor performs against moving ground vehicles, including motorcycles, trucks and tanks. The AESA sensor also will be checked against a range of airborne targets, including other Apaches, light helicopters, uncrewed aircraft systems and Beechcraft T-6 trainers, the Army solicitation said.
The service’s interest beyond the demonstration still is not clear. Funded upgrades for the AH-64s so far are limited to the GE T901 turboshaft engine, improved tail rotor drive systems, strengthened structural components and more reliable electrical power generators. The Army will likely consider an AESA radar upgrade first on the FLRAA Version 2 aircraft, for which the Army is finalizing requirements. If the price drops enough, an AESA radar upgrade also would come to the UH-60M and CH-47F, boosting the low-altitude, high-speed safety levels for Black Hawk and Chinook crews.
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