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SOSTAR-X Released To Service As Test Campaign Starts

On 04th May, 2006, the Fokker SX 100 (pictured) went airborne in Woensdrecht and landed after a four hours test flight.
by Staff Writers
Friedrichshafen, Germany (SPX) May 30, 2006
The European SOSTAR-X programme for the development and demonstration of an advanced airborne ground surveillance radar system has started flight testing.

After conclusion of the SOSTAR-X mission system ground integration being performed in Friedrichshafen, Germany, aircraft installation and ground testing were completed in Woensdrecht, NL. On 28 th April 2006, the Fokker 100 "SX" received its "Release to Service" after having passed successfully performance and EMI/EMC flight tests.

On 04th May, 2006, the Fokker SX 100 went airborne in Woensdrecht and landed after a four hours test flight. In parallel The Netherlands Army were simultaneously controlling the requested fixed and moving targets.

During the flight all sensor modes were tested and the collected raw data were stored. The data were afterwards disseminated to industry for analysis and evaluation. First evaluation of test results showed that the mission test flight was very successful and all expectations were exceeded.

"We are pleased to announce that SOSTAR-X has started the flight test campaign with an extremely succesful first flight", says Dr. Enno Littmann, leaving General Manager of the European company SOSTAR GmbH.

His successor, Peter Angenoorth, added: "These very convincing first flight results suggest that the overall SOSTAR-X system requirement will be met. Our companies are now able to intensively test and optimize the functionalities of this ultra-modern airborne ground surveillance demonstrator.

Mission flight tests have just started and we will perform a wide spectrum of industry flights in three campaigns during the next twelve month conducted in The Netherlands and Germany."

At the beginning of 2007, SOSTAR-X will prove the contractual performance in a customer flight campaign in France.

An operational demonstration with a live military scenario will reveal to a selected audience the capabilities of the SOSTAR-X system. This demonstrator system must be considered to be the best performing European ISR aircraft ever.

The campaign will feature capabilities like Wide Area GMTI Scanning and Tracking of Ground Movers and Helicopters, High Resolution Spotlight SAR and Swath SAR Imaging. Target Classification by Spectral Classification, High Range Resolution Length Measurements and Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging of Ground Moving Targets will also be presented.

Most of the mission and sensor planning will occur on-board by means of two operations & control stations. A wide-band data link will allow imagery to be down-linked in real time to a German and a French Ground Station for further analysis.

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