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From: drn@pinet.aip.org (donald_newcomb)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: PS-890 radar
Message-ID: <1991Apr11.033318.3949@amd.com>
Date: 10 Apr 91 12:42:00 GMT
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Lines: 31
Approved: military@amd.com


From: drn@pinet.aip.org (donald_newcomb)


Urban Fredriksson (urbanf@yj.data.nokia.fi)
wrote recently about the Swedish FSR-890 phased-array radar for
AEW. This system has been in development for a few years and was
the cover story of an IDR issue (1) a few years ago under the name
Ericsson PS-890.

One thought I had at the time related to the lack of organic AEW
in the British fleet. This was an outgrowth of the doctrinal decision
made in the mid seventies which reduced British carrier operations
to near-home ASW roles, and produced a fleet of carrierlets which
could not support fixed-wing operations required for AEW aircraft such
as the E-2C Hawkeye.  This deficiency was sorely evident in the South
Atlantic War several years later.

If the Brits were able to mount the PS-890 on a VTOL aircraft such
as the  V-22 Osprey and operate them from the "ski-jump" carriers
could they not reclaim much of the blue ocean capability lost in
the seventies?

Reference:
(1) Sweetman, Bill, "Leading-edge technology for Swedish AEW", in
    _International Defense Review_, v21 #3, 1988, pp 277-278.

Donald Newcomb        * You can measure a programmer's perspective
drn@pinet.aip.org     * by noting his attitude on the continuing 
drn@aip.bitnet        * validity of FORTRAN.
                      *       Alan J. Perlis (Epigrams on Programming)