CROWN Project, towards a European Multifunction AESA system
María Luz Gil Heras, Alvaro Cubillo Garcia, José Correcher Soriano, Jose Luis Galan de la Haba, Isabelle Le Roy‐Naneix, Stéphane Kemkemian, Mattias Thorsell, Michael Brandfaß, Philippe Brouard, Tomas Boman, Sebastian Durst, Antonio Nanni, J.J.M. de Wit, Ubaldo Calfa, Mantas Sakalas
Abstract
The project European active electronically scanned array with Combined Radar, Electronic Warfare (EW) and Communications (COMMs) functions for military applications, called CROWN, was launched in July 2021 under the European program of Preparatory Action for Defence Research (PADR) and Electromagnetic Spectrum Dominance Call. It responds to the need of designing and developing high-performance and very compact Multifunction RF systems. Multifunction systems, integrating several functions in only one single system, enable small platforms operating in the complex battlefield of high capabilities, able to adapt and react in real-time to the changing scenarios and working in collaborative way with other systems. Technological challenges are found in the development of broadband antennas, digital beam forming (DBF), smart resource management and compact transmit and receive modules. Other aspects at system level as architecture definition or modelling are also tackled within the project.