Royal Navyn Merlin Mk 2 Crowsnest on 18 kk myöhässä:
Royal Navy’s Merlin Crowsnest AEW Helicopter Faces Delays
According to a report by the UK National Audit Office (NAO), on Carrier Strike, the initial operational capability (IOC) of the Royal Navy Merlin Crowsnest AEW helicopter will face an 18 month delay.
Xavier Vavasseur 30 Jun 2020
The Crowsnest kit transforms the Merlin HM.2 of the Royal Navy into an Advanced Early Warning (AEW) helicopter. Without this capability, the carrier strike group’s capabilities will be downgraded. There is a contingency plan for deploying Crowsnest helicopters during CSG21 without IOC, as an interim capability.
Sea Kingissa olevan tutkan korvaajaksi Crowsnest-projektissa ehdotettiin An/Apg-81 tutkasta kehitettyä AESA-versiota tai ELTAn omaa tutkaa. Hanke kuitenkin skaalattiin edullisempaan versioon Thalesin ja L&M yhteisessä hankkeessa.
The developer and manufacturer of the Crowsnest system is the British branch of Lockheed Martin (Lockheed Martin UK), while Thales and Leonardo are subcontractors. Under the terms of the contract, the first Merlin HM.2 helicopter equipped with the Crowsnest kit was set to be commissioned in June 2019.
Initially, Lockheed Martin offered its own containerized Vigilance system as part of the Crowsnest program, using a multipurpose radar with AFAR based on the Northrop Grumman AN / APG-81 radar (used on the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter) or the Israeli IAI radar placed in an external onboard container Elta EL / M-2052. This system has been tested by Lockheed Martin since the end of 2011. However, in April 2015, Lockheed Martin, joining forces with Thales, proposed a more conservative and cheaper version of the Thales solution, which was originally proposed by the latter independently. It is an upgrade of the Cerberus radar system used by the Sea King ASaC.7 helicopters with modified Thales Searchwater 2000 AEW radar with mechanical scanning. In May 2015, this “budget” decision was chosen by the UK Department of Defense.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-new...merlin-crowsnest-aew-helicopter-faces-delays/