((Picture by Grays Harbor, Edited by USPA))
Crew: 2 (pilot/co-pilot) + 13 Radar Operators/Controllers, room for 18 People
Height: 24.1m
Length: 74.4m
Wingspan: 79.75m
Empty Weight: 276,800 kg
MTOW: 590,000 kg
Max Fuel Weight: 250,000 kg
Speed: 885 Km/h
Range: 13,815 km
Ceiling: 13,100 m
Propulsion: 4x Trent 900
Thrust: 322 Kn
Radar: Pennsylvanian Electronics Inc. MESA, 400km-600km Range
Countermeasures: flare and chaff pods, Towed Decoy, DIRCM
History
The E-55A was designed after a request originating from the Pennsylvanian Air force was released. In it, requirements were handed out for a new, modern Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft. Several Dozen Designs would eventually be submitted, with 2 finally being chosen. One, the E-55A, was to be a modified Airbus A380 Airliner, while the other, which would develop into the E-15A, would be a modified Boeing 787-9 Airliner. Both Aircraft would be accepted in service, but the E-55A would be short lived, since the E-15A was seen as a smaller, cheaper, and just as capable alternative to it. As a result, the E-55A would, less than a year after entering service, become a solely Export-Aircraft. While the E-55A under Advertisement with Pennsylvanian Aerospace Incorporation would not be a very successful export aircraft, with less than 700 examples sold worldwide, the E-55A remained a very potent Combat aircraft, due to its large size, and ability to pack a very large amount of Electronics and other systems into the aircraft.
Airframe
The Aircrafts Airframe is largely the same as a stock Airbus A380 Airliner. The Major exceptions to these are that the Airframe is reinforced and changed in several spots. The most obvious of these is where the Radar is mounted to the Fuselage, just forward of the tail. In the two places where the Radar is mounted to the Fuselage, the Airframe is reinforced so as to take the extra stress subjected to it by the airflow over and around the Radar Housing.
Countermeasures
In 2 locations along the wing and 1 on the back part of the Fuselage near the tail, there are Housings, each holding 1 or more Towed Decoys. The two wing locations have a single Decoy, while the tail has 3, for a total of 5. The idea behind the towed Decoy is to have the aircraft turn away from the incoming missile and have it lock-on to the decoy, destroying it instead of the aircraft. The Decoys work by deploying from the pods following takeoff, after which they are trailed on a 500m long cable behind the aircraft. While they are deployed, the decoy radiates a heat signature that rivals that of the aircrafts engine’s, intended to fool Infra-Red Guided missiles, as well as a radar signature, intended to fool Active Radar Guided missiles into going for the decoy instead. The Decoy’s are highly effective at their job, and, while they are not 100% effective, may save the aircraft from being lost to a missile on many occasions.
Another Countermeasure system that the Aircraft carries is a Directional Infra-Red Countermeasure System (DIRCM). A DIRCM Works by focusing a high intensity Infra-Red laser at the Missile’s seeker head, which results in the missile being “Blinded”, and losing its lock on any and all aircraft, because all that its seeker can see is nothing but heat. There are 12 different DIRCMs located around the aircraft, providing a full 360 degrees of protection against Infra-Red guided missiles such as the American SIM-9 Sidewinder or the European AIM-132. While the DIRCM is relatively Short Ranged Weapon, it is perhaps the most effective weapon in the world when it comes to fooling Incoming Infra-Red Guided Missiles.
The final Countermeasure system located on the aircraft is a High Powered Radar Jammer. The Jammer is located in the Radar Housing where the PEI MESA Radar is. The Jammers role is to jam the Radar Seekers on incoming Active Radar Guided Missiles like the American AMRAAM or the European Meteor and MICA RF Missiles. It can also work to jam the radars of enemy fighters at Beyond Visual Range, working to reduce their ability to gain a lock on or to locate aircraft from the user’s side. While the Radar Jammer can be used to protect the aircraft from incoming Missiles, it is a multipurpose unit, allowing the aircraft to protect any friendly aircraft within a rather large radius.
Engines
The E-55A is powered by 4 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 Turbofan Jet Engine, as found on common Civilian Version of the A380 Airliner. The Choice to keep the engines was made in an attempt to keep the aircrafts cost down, by keeping it as close to the price of a Civilian Airbus as possible.
History of the Trent 900
In the early 1990s, Airbus had begun development of a larger successor to the Boeing 747, an aircraft designated A3XX, which was later to be formally launched as the A380. By 1996, its definition had progressed to the extent that Rolls-Royce was able to announce that it would develop the Trent 900 to power the A380. In October 2000, the Trent 900 became the A380's launch engine when Singapore Airlines specified the engine for its order for 10 A380s; this was quickly followed by Qantas in February 2001.
Rolls-Royce has seven risk and revenue sharing partners on the Trent 900: Industria de Turbo Propulsores (low pressure turbine), Hamilton Sundstrand(electronic engine controls), Avio S.p.A. (gearbox module), Marubeni Corporation (engine components), Volvo Aero (intermediate compressor case), Goodrich Corporation (fan casings and sensors) and Honeywell (pneumatic systems). In addition, Samsung Techwin, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) are programme associates.
The Trent 900 made its maiden flight on May 17, 2004 on Airbus' A340-300 testbed, replacing the port inner CFM56-5 engine, and its final certification was granted by EASA on 29 October 2004 and the FAA on 4 December 2006.[1] Rolls-Royce announced in October 2007 that production of the Trent 900 had been re-started after a twelve month suspension caused by delays to the A380.[2]
On 27 September 2007, British Airways announced the selection of the Trent 900 to power 12 A380 aircraft, helping to take the engine's share of the A380 engine market to 52% at the end of February 2009.
The Trent 900 family powers the Airbus A380. It comes in two thrust ratings, 70,000 lbf (310 kN) and 76,000 lbf (340 kN) but is capable of achieving 84,000 lbf (370 kN). It features a significant amount of technology inherited from the 8104 demonstrator including its 2.95 m (116 in) diameter swept-back fan which provides greater thrust for the same engine size, and is also about 15 percent lighter than previous wide-chord blades. It is also the first member of the Trent family to feature a contra-rotating HP spool and uses the core of the very reliable Trent 500. It is the only A380 engine that can be transported on a Boeing 747 freighter.
Whereas most members of the Trent family are controlled by Goodrich FADECs, engine controllers on the Trent 900 are provided by Hamilton Sundstrand, a United Technologies (UTC) company. UTC is also the parent company of Pratt & Whitney, who, with GE Aircraft Engines, is partnering to produce the Engine Alliance GP7000, the other engine available for the A380. This kind of cooperation among competitors is prevalent in the aircraft market as it provides for risk sharing among them and diversity in source countries, a significant factor in an airline's choice of airframe and powerplant.
The Trent 900 will be the first Trent engine fitted with the advanced Engine Health Monitoring (EHM) system based on QUICK Technology.
Radar and Electronics
The Pennsylvanian Electronic Incorporated Multi-role Active Electronically Scanned Array found on the E-55A is a large, more powerful, more capable version of the Northrop Grumman MESA Radar found on the Boeing 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft.
Radar systems generally work by connecting an antenna to a powerful radio transmitter to broadcast a short pulse of signal. The transmitter is then disconnected and the antenna is attached to a sensitive receiver which amplifies any echos from target objects and then sends the resulting output to a display of some sort. The transmitter elements were typically klystron tubes, which are suitable for amplifying a small range of frequencies. In order to scan a portion of the sky, the radar antenna has to be physically moved to point in different directions.
Starting in the 1960s new solid-state delays were introduced that led to the first practical large-scale passive electronically scanned array (PESA), or simply phased array radar. PESAs took a signal from a single source, split it up into hundreds of paths, selectively delayed some of them, and sent them to individual antennas. The resulting broadcasts overlapped in space, and the interference patterns between the individual signals was selected in order to reinforce the signal at certain angles, and mute it down in all others. The delays could be easily controlled electronically, allowing the beam to be steered without the antenna having to move. A PESA can scan a volume of space much more quickly than a traditional mechanical system. Additionally, as the electronics improved, PESAs added the ability to produce several active beams, allowing them to continue scanning the sky while at the same time focusing smaller beams on certain targets for tracking or guiding semi-active radar homing missiles. PESAs quickly became widespread on ships and large fixed emplacements in the 1960s, followed by airborne sensors as the electronics shrank.
AESAs are the result of further developments in solid-state electronics. In earlier systems the broadcast signal was originally created in a klystron tube or similar device, which are relatively large. Receiver electronics were also large due to the high frequencies that they worked with. The introduction of gallium arsenide microelectronics through the 1980s served to greatly reduce the size of the receiver elements, until effective ones could be built at sizes similar to those of handheld radios, only a few centimeters in volume. The introduction of JFETs and MESFETs did the same to the transmitter side of the systems as well. Now an entire radar, the transmitter, receiver and antenna, could be shrunk into a single "transmitter-receiver module" (TRM) about the size of a carton of milk.
The primary advantage of a AESA over a PESA is that the different modules can operate on different frequencies. Unlike the PESA, where the signal was generated at single frequencies by a small number of transmitters, in the AESA each module broadcasts its own independent signal. This allows the AESA to produce numerous "sub-beams" and actively "paint" a much larger number of targets. Additionally, the solid-state transmitters are able to broadcast effectively at a much wider range of frequencies, giving AESAs the ability to change their operating frequency with every pulse sent out. AESAs can also produce beams that consist of many different frequencies at once, using post-processing of the combined signal from a number of TRMs to re-create a display as if there was a single powerful beam being sent.
Radar systems work by sending out a signal and then listening for its echo off distant objects. Each of these paths, to and from the target, is subject to the inverse square law of propagation. That means that a radar's received energy drops with the fourth power of distance, which is why radar systems require high powers, often in the megawatt range, in order to be effective at long range.
The radar signal being sent out is a simple radio signal, and can be received with a simple radio receiver. It is common to use such a receiver in the targets, normally aircraft, to detect radar broadcasts. Unlike the radar unit, which has to send the pulse out and then receive its reflection, the target's receiver does not need the reflection and thus the signal drops off only as the square of distance. This means that the receiver is always at an advantage over the radar in terms of range - it will always be able to detect the signal long before the radar can see the target's echo. Since the position of the radar is extremely useful information in an attack on that platform, this means that radars generally have to be turned off for lengthy periods if they are subject to attack; this is common on ships, for instance.
Turning that received signal into a useful display is the purpose of the "radar warning receiver" (RWR). Unlike the radar, which knows which direction it is sending its signal, the receiver simply gets a pulse of energy and has to interpret it. Since the radio spectrum is filled with noise, the receiver's signal is integrated over a short period of time, making periodic sources like a radar add up and stand out over the random background. Typically RWRs store the detected pulses for a short period of time, and compare their broadcast frequency and pulse repetition frequency against a database of known radars. The rough direction can be calculated using a rotating antenna, or similar passive array, and combined with symbology indicating the likely purpose of the radar - airborne early warning, surface to air missile, etc.
This technique is much less useful against AESA radars. Since the AESA can change its frequency with every pulse, and generally does so using a pseudo-random sequence, integrating over time does not help pull the signal out of the background noise. Nor does the AESA have any sort of fixed pulse repetition frequency, which can also be varied and thus hide any periodic brightening across the entire spectrum. Traditional RWRs are essentially useless against AESA radars.
Jamming is likewise much more difficult against an AESA. Traditionally, jammers have operated by determining the operating frequency of the radar and then broadcasting a signal on it to confuse the receiver as to which is the "real" pulse and which is the jammers. This technique works as long as the radar system cannot easily change its operating frequency. When the transmitters were based on klystron tubes this was generally true, and radars, especially airborne ones, had only a few frequencies to chose among. A jammer could listen to those possible frequencies and select the one being used to jam.
Since an AESA changes its operating frequency with every pulse, and spreads the frequencies across a wide band even in a single pulse, jammers are much less effective. Although it is possible to send out broadband white noise against all the possible frequencies, this means the amount of energy being sent at any one frequency is much lower, reducing its effectiveness. Moreover, AESAs can be switched to a receive-only mode, and use the jamming signals as a powerful source to track its source, something that required a separate receiver in older platforms.
AESAs are so much more difficult to detect, and so much more useful in receiving signals from the targets, that they can broadcast continually and still have a very low chance of being detected. This allows the radar system to generate far more data than if it is being used only periodically, greatly improving overall system effectiveness.
Since each element in an AESA is a powerful radio receiver, active arrays have many roles besides traditional radar. One use is to dedicate several of the elements to reception of common radar signals, eliminating the need for a separate radar warning receiver. The same basic concept can be used to provide traditional radio support, and with some elements also broadcasting, form a very high bandwidth data link.
The Info recovered by the MESA Radar on top of the Aircraft is sent to the Processing computer onboard, located just ahead of the Radar Room and behind the Screen Room. This computer is capable of identifying up to 400 Targets and tracking up to 600 targets.
Defensive Armament
The E-55A, while it is not intended to get within missile range of enemy aircraft or still has some ability to defend itself from enemy fighters. This ability is in the form of 16 hard points located on the wings and lower fuselage, allowing the E-55A to be able to carry up to 32 Air to Air Missiles with 2 per Hard point. In Pennsylvanian Service most E-55s go up into the air with at 32 AIM-220 Velvet Groove Medium Range Air to Air Missiles or 32 So.100 MRAAMs. The Hard points are also capable of supporting other missiles such as the MBDA Meteor, AIM-120, or R-77.
E-55B “Guardian"
The E-55B is heavily upgraded version of the E-55A. The E-55B eventually gained the nickname “Guardian”, because of its heavily increased capabilities over the E-55A. Among these abilities was the inclusion of several Lyran Built and Designed Systems, such as the Cromwell II System, and the AN/APQ-281 'Tiamat' EW system, and a newer, more advanced, longer ranged MESA Radar.
The Cromwell II Battlefield Management system found on the E-55B is the same version of the system found on the Lyran built LY908C “Warhawk” Strike Fighter, also in Pennsylvanian Service.
Some History on the Cromwell II
The hub of the LY908, as with most Lyran combat vehicles, is the Cromwell II battlespace management system. In terms of electronic uplinking and data sharing, the LY908 is thus, in terms of information, extremely similar to many recent Lyran AFV designs, including the LY4A2 and LY224, and in-development LY6A1, as well as the Yanitarian YA-28 and YA-42. The Warhawk is fitted with a highly extensive sensor suite so as to enable the transmission of as much information as possible into any extant battlenet, while possessing substantial internal (multiple-redundant) computational facilities so as to handle required downloads from that selfsame network or its own aforementioned sensor systems. It is worth mentioning that the vast majority of gathered information is NOT displayed to the operators, but is nevertheless known to the battlespace system (and aircraft itself), which determines relevant information, as displays to the flight crew as appropriate.
The result is an integrated and adaptive battlespace network that maximises combat lethality, performance, and output, and also enables command and control on an unprecedented scale. Information is sourced not only from multiple sources on the individual platform, but from every Cromwell II equipped friendly vehicle within the battlespace, land, sea, air and space, which provides constant informational updates across a broad spectrum of sources, both known to the operators, and operating below their awareness. In recent years the Cromwell II system has begun to mature as a force-multiplier, with effectiveness of the system increasingly and exponentially evident to all but the most entrenched detractors. Image and pattern recognition software constantly interfaces with sensory systems (even while the given input is not being examined by crew), and the results both relayed to friendly and superior force elements, and also displayed for action by operators. For example, a Warhawk's CSO is scanning to his right, checking to the 2 o'clock position, with the view in the helmet-mounted HUD set to TI. While in that orientation, an AWACS platform 25 kilometres away detects a flight of inbound aircraft at 11 o'clock to the LY908, 300km away, while another Warhawk's APSCSA (OLS) spots a flight of F22s 100km away at 1 o'clock. Without any input from operators on either platform, the information is processed and displayed to other units that Cromwell determines need to know, based upon the radar signature and OLS contacts cross-referenced to Cromwell's databanks. A pattern match for the radar signature is found – MiG31s. The identified target is then silhouetted (with any of a number of settings [such as colour-coding or numerical assignment] in place to illustrate level of threat, in both relative and absolute terms), and the image is displayed on the HUD. While the LY908's radars (given that this is an air-to-ground mission) are set to passive (to minimise detection footprint), the Cromwell has insured that the aircraft has been made aware of the potential threat, given the Cromwell's evaluation of both the MiG31s and F22s as credible threats. This is, of course, relative... had the aircraft been in the process of engaging a quartet of F22s, at close range, on its own, the Cromwell would probably have marked the MiG31s, but not highlighted it as a priority for engagement, given the relatively higher threat represented by the F22s, and leaving aside the fact that that would imply a serious problem on a number of levels. Similarly, were systems to detect a lone Kiowa helicopter 300km to 9 o'clock, there probably would not be any audio notification of that fact.
In this case, however, Cromwell activates the audio notification system, and informs the vehicle's operators of the detected F22 and MiG31 hostiles. The target identification and crew notification process has, to this point, taken less than a third of a second, baring the half second it has taken for the auditory warning to be processed by the crew's central nervous system and brain.
The Cromwell II system utilises this information to compute a firing solution for the platform's LY4031 missiles, based upon analysis of the target. If the operators choose to fire, the firing solution is finalised at the moment the operator depresses the firing stud, and is completed in less time than it takes the finger to depress all the way. The firing solution that Cromwell II generates, utilising the enormous range of sensory inputs available to it, ensures an extremely high hit percentage at standard ranges, across all conditions using any of the available weapons systems.
For close-in dogfights, the radar automatically acquires enemy aircraft, and this information is projected on the head-up display. The high off-boresight capabilities of the recommended weapon systems ensures that the operators need only look at the targets, hear the 'target locked' tone, and release the missile. Often manoeuvering the plane isn't necessary, although it is certainly recommended in many circumstances, both to elude retaliatory fire, and to ensure a better chance of hit.
At the most basic level, the Cromwell II system aims to accelerate engagement cycles and increase operational tempo at all levels of the warfighting system. This acceleration is achieved by providing a mechanism to rapidly gather and distribute targeting information, and rapidly issue directives. Cromwell II's ultra-high speed networking permits almost completely error-free, high integrity transmission in a bare fraction of the time required for voice-based transmission, and permits transfer of a wide range of data formats, from a multitude of compatible sources.
In case of an emergency, the vehicle can be operated by a single member of its two-person crew, with all operating functions able to be accessed by either pilot or CSO. The Cromwell system can autonomously locate and track detected targets, comparing them both to known hostiles (identified by datalink) or targets established by image recognition (again as available via information uplink), avoid blue-on-blue engagements and fire its main gun without needing any input from a human operator, although the absence of a human operator will adversely affect engagement tempo.
The E-55B is also extremely capable in the electronic warfare role, with escort jamming and standoff jamming capability provided through use of the Lyro-Varessan AN/ALQ-281 'Tiamat' (Babylonian mythology – 'Dragon of Chaos') electronic warfare system. The 'Tiamat' recievers are located in pods atop the Guardians vertical tail, while the transmitters are housed in the nose of the aircraft, just above the Cockpit, and on the trailing edges of the tailplane's horizontal surfaces. The system, when engaged, is capable of intercepting, automatically processing and jamming received radio frequency signals. The LY908's electronic attack capabilities involve using radiated EM energy to degrade, neutralise or destroy hostile force- or force-support elements. 'Tiamat' is one of the first EW platforms to use high-end solid-state emitters, coupled with dramatically elevated potential power throughput, and dynamic and pattern-probability frequency agile (PPFA) barrage and spot jamming to render all but the most potent radars impotent. Further, if the seeking radar is calculated to be capable of burning through the jamming, precisely timed utilisation of Cromwell-backed broad-spectrum DRFM (Repeater) jamming.
In addition, the radar found on the E-55A was replaced by a newer, more advanced variant of the PEC MESA was placed on the aircraft, allowing a longer maximum effective range, increased from 460km at operating altitude, to over 600km at operating altitude. This allows the aircraft to cover a area much larger than the E-55A could, drastically increasing its combat effectiveness. Other than these changes, the E-55B is exactly the same as the E-55A.
E-55A – Baseline variant for non-Fedalan or Norheim Nations, does not come equipped with Cromwell II, Tiamat, or PEC MESA Mk II. NS $345 Million
E-55B – Advanced Production Variant for Fedala Accord Signatories and select nations of the Norheim Doctrine. Includes Cromwell II, Tiamat and PEC MESA Mk II. NS $385 Million
This Aircraft, along with others, is availiable at Pennsylvanian Aerospace Incorporated
