Leonardo has been awarded a contract by Northrop Grumman to provide its new high frequency (HF) radio system, the SRT-400, for the U.S. Navy’s fleet of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft. Leonardo’s extensive research and development activities in the high frequency airborne radio field has led to the design and production of the state-of-the-art HF Single Side Band system SRT-400, which is suitable for fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Leonardo has been involved in the design and manufacture of airborne HF systems for decades. Leonardo’s experience dates back to the 1970s, having sold thousands of its previous generation RT-170 (170W), RT-270 (200W) and RT-470 (400W) to customers around the world. The RT-200/400 family of advanced HF/SSB transceivers have been designed specifically for fixed-wing and rotary-wing avionic platforms.
The SRT-400 and its low power variant, the SRT-200, combine high flexibility and simplified operations into a reduced size and weight package achieved through innovative electrical and mechanical design. A patented Leonardo technology reduces TX power consumption by more than 40% compared to previous designs, reducing heat dissipation and greatly improving reliability. Both transceivers can be interfaced with multiple Antenna Tuning Units (ATU) matching all kinds of existing antennas (loop, wire or notch). Variants of the E-2 Hawkeye have been in operation since the early 1960s. It provides ship or land based all-weather airborne early warning and command and control, detecting and tracking targets at extended range in deep water, littoral and over-land environments.
The RT-200/400 family of advanced HF/SSB transceivers have been designed specifically for fixed-wing and rotary-wing avionic platforms. Extensive research and development activities carried out by Airborne and Space Systems Division in the HF field have led to design and production a new family of advanced HF/SSB transceivers for fixed-wing and rotary-wing avionic platforms. These transceivers provide voice/data communications over the 2-30 MHz frequency range with ALE 2G/3G (automatic link establishment) according to MIL-STD 188-141B (App.A, B, C) / Stanag 4538. Designed to meet the most severe requirements, the family is composed by 2 systems with different outputs power (200 or 400 Watts) and a wide range of voice/data services in the USB/LSB/AME and CW modes.
The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. This twin-turboprop aircraft was designed and developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s by the Grumman Aircraft Company for the United States Navy as a replacement for the earlier, piston-engined E-1 Tracer. Once considered for replacement by the “Common Support Aircraft”, this concept was abandoned. The latest E-2 version is the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, which features an entirely new avionics suite including the new AN/APY-9 radar, radio suite, mission computer, integrated satellite communications, flight management system, improved T56-A-427A engines, a glass cockpit and later changes should enable aerial refueling by 2020.