Northrop Grumman has completed “dozens” of flight tests of its new Electronically-Scanned Multifunction Reconfigurable Integrated Sensor as part of a “first flight campaign.” The company plans to use the sensor on multiple platforms, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones and possibly the next-generation Air Dominance fighter jet, the company said Aug. 20.
The company announced EMRIS in February 2023, saying the technology could simultaneously perform radar operations, communications and electronic warfare and was small enough to be applicable to a wide range of air systems. As an ultra-wideband system, it is designed to be rapidly reconfigurable and perform in-flight software updates, Northrop said.
“These flights, conducted in collaboration with government partners and using a government-provided aircraft, represent the next level of technology maturity for EMRIS,” Northrop said. The flight demonstrated “EMRIS’ open architecture by leveraging third-party integration and operations.” The company could not immediately identify the test aircraft.
New software “was rapidly deployed during flight, demonstrating the reconfigurable nature of the sensor,” Northrop added. Northrop developed the technology in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The company has previously stated that the panel and associated hardware are compact enough to be mounted in the nose or wings of an aircraft or even a munition.
Krys Moen, Northrop’s vice president of advanced mission capabilities, said the “dozens of successful flights with EMRIS have demonstrated that it is possible to shorten development times and reduce program costs” by leveraging the company’s partnerships with all U.S. military services. Applications include “manned and unmanned platforms.”
The system’s radar sensor is an active electronically scanned array radar developed under DARPA’s Arrays on Commercial Timescales program and combined with the government’s open architecture standards, allowing it to perform multiple radio frequency (RF) functions simultaneously. Northrop said it was developed using “common building blocks and software containerization,” allowing for “rapid, low-cost production.”
AESA radars are already in use on several U.S. Air Force aircraft, including the F-35, F-22 and F-16. Northrop is also building the Multirole Electronically Scanned Array radar that will be mounted on the back of the E-7 Wedgetail, which will be the Air Force’s new airborne early warning and control aircraft.
The company said it is currently conducting tests on a second EMRIS array and that during this phase it will “demonstrate its scalability by producing two smaller EMRIS openings for lower cost and size-constrained application demonstrations.” It could not immediately say whether another flight test campaign is planned or whether the system will be configured for a specific platform or launch customer.
“During the EMRIS flights, Northrop Grumman demonstrated the ability to rapidly leverage technologies developed for other programs to integrate multiple in-service capabilities into EMRIS,” the company said, but did not disclose which customized systems were involved.
Northrop said EMRIS demonstrates “the value of a product line designed from the ground up to leverage open, scalable software along with modular digital building blocks to enable a common sensor baseline.” The technology is applicable to “a wide range of existing platform upgrades as well as new emerging opportunities.”
