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Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered the Arrays at Commercial Timescales Integration and Validation (ACT-IV) system to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
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The agility of the digital AESA was demonstrated during multiple demonstrations at the Northrop Grumman test range and is designed to enable future warfighters to quickly adapt to new threats, control the electromagnetic spectrum, and connect to tactical networks in support of distributed operations.
ACT-IV is one of the first multifunction systems based on a digital AESA using the semiconductor devices developed on the DARPA Arrays at Commercial Timescales (ACT) program.
The delivery is a culmination of the close collaboration between the teams at AFRL, DARPA and Northrop Grumman, according to Dr Bae-Ian Wu, ACT-IV project lead, sensors directorate, AFRL.
“The ACT-IV system is being prepared for initial testing by the AFRL Sensors Directorate as part of a strategic investment to develop and test the technologies for multifunction digital phased array systems in an open-architecture environment for the larger DoD community,” Dr Wu said.
The ACT-IV system can perform radar, electronic warfare and communication functions simultaneously by controlling a large number of independent digital transmit/receive channels by applying the flexibility of the digital AESA.
The algorithms, software and capabilities developed on ACT-IV are designed to transition into next generation multifunction RF systems to support advanced development programs throughout the Department of Defense.
The ACT-IV system is aimed to be a foundational research asset for the Department of Defense’s multi-service research initiative for digital radars and multifunction systems.
The initiative is intended to support a community of researchers that are developing new algorithms and software to explore the possibilities of next-generation digital AESAs for national security missions.
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