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FRENCH ARMY GETS FIRST HORIZON

The Gulf War and the Northrop Grumman E-8 JointSTARS missions over Bosnia proved the advantage of a permanent airborne surveillance of the battlefield. The French Army has now such a radar based reconnaissance system available: the first Horizon complex was officially accepted at the end of June. The Horizon system (HÈlicoptËre d¥Observation Radar et d¥Investigation sur Zone) comprises of a Eurocopter AS 532UL Cougar and a ground station.

Horizon is able to survey the movements of up to 4000 wheeled or tracked vehicles at distances of up to 200 km. The Cougar's 1000 km range makes it possible to deploy the system quickly. Airlift is also possible, but it will take about 30 hours to dismantle and set-up the system.

According to Horizon's employment concept, the Cougar helicopter will operate behind the front line at an altitude of up to 4000 m and survey the enemy activities with its Thomson-CSF Target radar. The radar is working on the X-band and has a swivelling antenna below the rear fuselage, which can be retracted for take-off and landing. The system has a distance resolution of approximately 40 m and can determine speeds with an accuracy of +/- seven km/h. In the snapshot mode, the radar can scan 20000 sq km in ten seconds.

The radar data are evaluated at the data console in the Cougar's cabin. Here, the zoom factor can be changed and a map display can be added to the radar display for better orientation.

At the same time, the data is linked via a Ku-band Agatha data-link (Dassault Electronique) to the ground station, which may be at a distance of up to 120 km. This ground station is mounted on a truck and has two workstations. Each console has a large colour display, keyboard, trackball, three 1,2 gigabyte hard discs, and a CD-ROM drive.

To assure Cougar's all-weather capability, the helicopter is equipped with a de-icing system. The pilots have night goggles available. ECM equipment, chaff dispensers, and a shielding of the engine exhaust are to protect the helicopter against attacks. A GPS supported inertial navigation system is coupled to a four-axis autopilot and ensures precise flight profiles. The helicopter has a four-hour maximum mission time.

The French Army plans to procure a total of four helicopters and two ground stations, which are scheduled for delivery until mid next year. This is much less than was originally planned in the mid eighties, when 20 aircraft were earmarked for the so called Orchidée program. However, OrchidÈe was canceled after the first flight of the fully equipped prototype in 1990. Following some convincing test missions during the Gulf War, the program was reactivated in the spring of 1993. A total of FF 1,45 billion are estimated for the program, one billion Francs going on the account of Orchidée. The orders for the actual Horizon system are divided as follows: Eurocopter (265 million FF), Thomson-CSF (136 million FF), and Dassault Systemes (51 million FF).

From page 53 of FLUG REVUE 9/96