Times Microwave Systems
- Electronic Warfare RF/Microwave Interconnect Systems
- Integrated Logistics Support and Field Engineering Services
Times Microwave Systems are the global leader in the design and manufacture of sophisticated ultra high performance RF/Microwave coaxial cabling systems for Airborne, Land-based and Naval Electronic Warfare applications.
For over 35 years, they have been entrusted with providing the RF/Microwave coaxial interconnect systems for the world’s most sophisticated Electronic Warfare equipped platforms.
Such previous international applications include F-4, F-5, F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, F-22, Eurofighter Typhoon, Jas Gripen, Mirage 2000-5, Tornado, Eurocopter NH 90, Longbow Apache and a host of other airborne, naval and ground based systems.
As the level of sophistication of today’s Electronic Warfare systems grows, there is a rapidly growing dependency on the RF/Microwave RF Cabling system to perform to ever increasing levels of electrical performance, reliability and maintainability.
Any degradation in the performance of these cabling systems will have a direct impact on either the detection range, bearing resolution accuracy or jamming capability of these mission critical systems.
It is also the case that the majority of Electronic Warfare Systems available today have no built in test facility which checks outside of the system boxes to verify that the electrical performance of the EW RF/Microwave coaxial cabling system is still servicable.
Should the performance of the RF/Microwave Coaxial cable interconnect system by degraded due to mechanical damage of the cable assemblies during initial installation or through servicing, this would remain undetected and could result in severely degraded EW system performance and thus platform vulnerability to attack.
Experiences by armed forces throughout the world in recent conflicts have alarmingly exposed severe shortcomings in this area due to a variery of factors such as;
- Original specification and selection of RF/Microwave coaxial cable assemblies by platform manufacturers or EW System suppliers which are not fit for purpose for Military applications.
- Lack of appreciation of the care required when dealing with the integration of Microwave Coaxial Cable technology, resulting in mechanical damage and the corresponding degradation of electrical performance at the intial installation stage.
- Lack of a suitable RF/Microwave coaxial cable test and verification capability by platform manufacturers and lack of skilled personnel in this field.
- Lack of test equipment, skilled personnel and a cable maintenance and test policy by end users to verify cable assembly performances and thus mitigate this serious risk.
Today Times Microwave Systems are working with front line forces throughout the world to cpmpletely remove and replace the RF/Microwave coaxial cable interconnect systems in over 800 fast fighter jet aircraft.
These platforms have been identified as suffering from severly degraded electrical performance or chronic reliability problems resulting in significant increases in Maintenance Man Hours, reduced asset availability, high through life costs and loss of confidence in the EW system by air crew.
The cost of this major rectification work is extremely high, but necessary however to restore the performance of these mission critical Defensive Aids systems.
To address this clear need, Times Microwave Systems are now offering a range of Integrated Logistics Support and Field Engineering services and solutions which, if utilised, will result in mitigation of the above risks.
Individual support packages are available which are tailored to meet the needs of OEM platform manufacturers, system designers, integration companies and armed forces throughout the world.
These include the following;
- Turnkey Engineering services to design the RF/Microwave Interconnect coaxial cabling system to meet EW system end to end electrical, mechanical and environmental performance characteristics.
- Provision of on site Microwave Cable Installation, care and maintenance training courses for platform manufacturers and armed forces service personnel.
- Provision of RF/Microwave Coaxial Cable field testing services of installed cabling systems fitted to either new build platforms or in service platforms.
- Provision of customer and end user on site training packages in RF/Microwave Testing and Diagnostics.
- Provision of FlightmasterTM – a turn key complete test and diagnostic capability solutions for armed forces in service use.
- Provision of Integrated Logistics Support services to suppliers of upgrade EW systems gloablly;
- Systems architecture design
- Installation studies
- Trial installations and mock ups
- Guaranteed installed performances (significant risk reduction)
Field Engineering services for field repairs, modifications, blind mate antenna conversion designs.