Second ASTOR test aircraft arrives in Raytheon's Texan facilities

Raytheon has doubled the size of its test fleet for the UK’s airborne stand-off radar (ASTOR) programme, with the arrival in Greenville, Texas, yesterday of a second modified airframe.

The aircraft – a heavily modified Bombardier Global Express business jet – completed an 11.5h transatlantic journey just 4min behind schedule, having conducted one refueling stop in Dallas, Texas en route to the Raytheon facility. It is pictured below taking off from Raytheon Systems’ (RSL) site at Broughton, UK.

The first of four Sentinel R1s to have undergone modification in Broughton, the aircraft (ZJ691) was earlier this year equipped with a dual-mode synthetic-aperture radar (SAR)/ground moving target indication sensor housed within a “canoe” fairing beneath its forward fuselage.

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