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History marks Iraq as one of the Middle eastern nation (others being Israel with Phalcon program) that have the ambition of developing indigenous AEW (Airborne Early Warning) capability. Their effort according to what i gathered so far based on French ground based radar, mainly the Tiger series. Their first attempt was the one called "Baghdad-I" with unique rear radar mounting solution. That does not appear to work as intended despite claims of the contrary.
Later a more practical solution emerged, the Adnan series AEW. Depicted below
This based on IL-76 as Baghdad-1 but with a rotodome instead of rear mounted radome. The radar is as far as i gather also based on French Tiger series, namely the Tiger G radar.
The curious thing about this "conversion" Is that there appears to be no real technical disclosures regarding this converted radar as well as basically the rest of the avionics suite in this aircraft. I wonder however if there are some more out there. From what i gathered so far it's claimed to be apable of detecting a MiG-21 target from 190 Km. From following source :
I myself attempted to make some crude estimate on this radar. based on Google earth and image measurement plus some assumption from the AEW design book "Airborne Early Warning System Concept" Edited by Maurice W Long. The following can be gleaned :
Radome diameter : 10 m
Radome height : 2 m
Dielectric portion width : 8.15 m
Dielectric portion height : 1.66 m
The baseline Tiger G's data are in the attached file :
Operating frequency : C band (5 GHz)
Antenna Width : 3 m
Antenna Height : 1.6m
Gain : 38.9 dB.
Range against 2 sqm RCS target : 100 Km
If the Adnan and Adnan-2's radar are indeed based on Tiger-G. The antenna appears to be scaled up in width but retaining the height. Thus the following
(Assumed) Adnan-1&2 radar :
Antenna Width : 8 m
Antenna Height : 1.6m
From the specification and further assumption that the Frequency isnt change (Still C-band) The resulting radar would have 4.3 dB of additional gain. The range increased by factor of 1.63 Times. Thus the scaled up radar against same target RCS would have about 163 km range. Kinda fell short on the claims but the radar may also allows slower RPM. This allow increase in dwell time, thus more range can be achieved. The original Tiger series radar have 15 RPM rotation rate which corresponds to frame time of about 4 seconds. Reducing it to 6 RPM Allows roughly double the frame time (10 seconds) and with the increased gain from the antenna allows increased range with a factor of 1.94. Thus against 2 Sqm target the Adnan AEW in theory can pick it up in 194 Km.
The internal layout might be basically similar as other AEW's with one dielectric radome house the antenna while the other behind it house the IFF antenna.
The Adnan might be the only AEW in her time that use C-band as its operating frequency. While other AEW's settle in S,L or UHF band.
Well. That's what i can gather and estimate so far. Would love to see additions and corrections and possibly the image of the radar inside its Radome.
Later a more practical solution emerged, the Adnan series AEW. Depicted below
This based on IL-76 as Baghdad-1 but with a rotodome instead of rear mounted radome. The radar is as far as i gather also based on French Tiger series, namely the Tiger G radar.
The curious thing about this "conversion" Is that there appears to be no real technical disclosures regarding this converted radar as well as basically the rest of the avionics suite in this aircraft. I wonder however if there are some more out there. From what i gathered so far it's claimed to be apable of detecting a MiG-21 target from 190 Km. From following source :
DRLO Aviation (part 17)
In this final part of the cycle, we will discuss the states where DRLO planes began to be built relatively recently or in small quantities. For convenience, these countries will be listed in alphabetical order, which of course does not reflect the degree of achievement or priority of one or another
en.topwar.ru
I myself attempted to make some crude estimate on this radar. based on Google earth and image measurement plus some assumption from the AEW design book "Airborne Early Warning System Concept" Edited by Maurice W Long. The following can be gleaned :
Radome diameter : 10 m
Radome height : 2 m
Dielectric portion width : 8.15 m
Dielectric portion height : 1.66 m
The baseline Tiger G's data are in the attached file :
Operating frequency : C band (5 GHz)
Antenna Width : 3 m
Antenna Height : 1.6m
Gain : 38.9 dB.
Range against 2 sqm RCS target : 100 Km
If the Adnan and Adnan-2's radar are indeed based on Tiger-G. The antenna appears to be scaled up in width but retaining the height. Thus the following
(Assumed) Adnan-1&2 radar :
Antenna Width : 8 m
Antenna Height : 1.6m
From the specification and further assumption that the Frequency isnt change (Still C-band) The resulting radar would have 4.3 dB of additional gain. The range increased by factor of 1.63 Times. Thus the scaled up radar against same target RCS would have about 163 km range. Kinda fell short on the claims but the radar may also allows slower RPM. This allow increase in dwell time, thus more range can be achieved. The original Tiger series radar have 15 RPM rotation rate which corresponds to frame time of about 4 seconds. Reducing it to 6 RPM Allows roughly double the frame time (10 seconds) and with the increased gain from the antenna allows increased range with a factor of 1.94. Thus against 2 Sqm target the Adnan AEW in theory can pick it up in 194 Km.
The internal layout might be basically similar as other AEW's with one dielectric radome house the antenna while the other behind it house the IFF antenna.
The Adnan might be the only AEW in her time that use C-band as its operating frequency. While other AEW's settle in S,L or UHF band.
Well. That's what i can gather and estimate so far. Would love to see additions and corrections and possibly the image of the radar inside its Radome.
