AN / APG-65

An AN / APG-65 during maintenance

The AN / APG-65 is an airborne pulse / Doppler radar for combat aircraft . It is used by the US Corporation Hughes Aircraft (now part of Raytheon ) produced. The successor model is the AN / APG-73 .

description

The AN / APG-65 was primarily designed for use on the F / A-18A / B Hornet . It is based largely on digital components, and may missiles of the type AIM-7 Sparrow , AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM control, as well as a lead point set for the pilot when using the cannon available. 16 operating modes are available with which a large number of air, land and sea targets can be captured and combated. In TWS mode ( Track-while-Scan ) up to ten targets can be tracked simultaneously and eight of them can be fought, the digital signal processor can perform 7.2 million complex operations per second. The radar is very reliable for its time, which is mainly made possible by the extensive BIT routines.

Operating modes

Air to air Velocity search Range-while-search Track-while-scan up to 10 targets Single target tracking Gun director mode Gun acquisition mode Vertical acquisition mode Raid assessment mode Boresight acquisition mode

Air-to-ground Real beam ground mapping Synthetic aperture mode (19: 1) Ground moving target indication Air-to-surface ranging Precision velocity update Terrain avoidance mode Sea surface mode

For an explanation of these terms, see also: → Operating mode (radar)

AN / APG-65GY

The AN / APG-65GY is the on-board radar of the McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom II , which took over the air defense in Germany until 2013. The radar belongs to the group of pulse-Doppler radars and is a German further development of the American APG-65 by Daimler Benz Aerospace in Ulm. The radar was also built into the first versions of the F / A-18 Hornet . A total of around 110 Luftwaffe aircraft had been converted by the end of 1996. It has a range of 250 km and allows the fighter aircraft to pursue and engage multiple targets at the same time. In conjunction with the AIM-120B AMRAAM, the F-4F should make it possible, despite its age, to protect German airspace until the Eurofighter is commissioned .

Platforms

• F / A-18A / B Hornet
• F / A-18C / D Hornet (early production samples only)
• AV-8B Harrier II
• F-4E
• F-4F ICE

Technical specifications

• Weight: 154 kg
• Volume: <0.126 m³ (without antenna)
• Antenna diameter: approx. 700 mm
• MTBF : 120 hours
• MTTR : 12 minutes
• Frequency range : 8 - 12 GHz
• Range: 110 km

Web links

• The Warfighter Encyclopedia ( Memento of November 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
• Page of the manufacturer
• radartutorial.eu

literature

• Jacques C. Naviaux: The new era of radar, Hughes AN / APG-65 tactical radar system sets standards . Flug-Revue, December 1980, p. 50ff.