Military Aircraft Radomes
The Most Multi-band Radomes in Flight
General Dynamics has produced tens of thousands of radomes for more than 35 military aircraft platforms and pods in the areas of Airlift, Bomber, Cargo, Electronic Warfare, Fighter, Reconnaissance and Strike.
Designed for next-generation air dominance platforms and collaborative combat aircraft
General Dynamics Mission Systems’ new ultra-wideband (UWB) radome wall designs enable optimal performance of next-generation integrated sensors and multi-function arrays being designed for next-generation air dominance platforms and collaborative combat aircraft.
These UWB radomes build upon General Dynamics’ proven performance with legacy narrowband radome designs and current wideband radome designs – and extend the performance over very wide frequency bands.
Features
General Dynamics produces fire control nose radomes for a majority of the US military fixed wing fighter and strike aircraft including wideband radomes for the most advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar systems. Other military applications include data link, electronic counter-measures, electronic warfare, SatCom and other specialized uses.
Key Capabilities:
- Electrical (RF) design/analysis
- Structural design/analysis
- Lightning direct effects protection
- Mechanical design
- Tool design
- Material and process engineering
- High precision machining
- Radio frequency (RF) testing
- Non-destructive testing (NDT)
- Repair
Radome Qualification Experience
- Material Allowables
- Static Loads
- Mechanical Shock & Vibration
- Fatigue
- Bird Strike
- Low Velocity Impact Damage (LVID)
- Fluids Resistance
- Rain Impact/Erosion
- Lightning Protection
- Other Environmental Qualification
- Electrical (RF) Performance
- Supplemental Type Certification
Facilities
- Approximately one million square feet of manufacturing space in Marion, Virginia n Indoor and outdoor RF test ranges
- Large autoclaves (up to 11 feet in diameter and 50 feet in length)
- FAA Repair Station Certification Number VQBR980L
Platform/Radome Examples
- Fighter/Attack
- F-35
- F/A-18
- F-16
- F-15
- F-20
- F-14
- F-5
- F-4
- F-111
- AV-8B
- A-4
- Mirage III
- L-159
- Bomber
- B-1B
- Cargo
- C-130
- C-17
- C-5
- Electronic Warfare
- EA-18G
- EA-6B
- Next Gen Jammer Pod
- AN/ALQ-99 Pod
- Reconnaissance
- SR-71
- RQ-4
- Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2)
- E-10
