BAE finally on contract for Typhoon ECRS Mk 2 radar upgrade

After close to eight years of development, BAE Systems and Leonardo have finally been awarded a contract to install the ECRS Mk 2 radar onto some of the UK’s Typhoon aircraft. Although programme costs are mounting, the upgrade should provide a significant boost in capability. 

BLUF: 

• BAE Systems has been awarded a £453.5 million contract to start production of the ECRS Mk 2 radar for the UK’s Typhoons. 
• The new radar will provide improved electronic warfare and sensing capabilities for some of the fleet, which will help them to maintain their edge in air-to-air combat. 

What is now the European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk 2 started life as a programme in 2018 with the goal of replacing the Captor ECR 90 in some of the UK’s Typhoon fleet. It took some time for the British government to financially commit to the project, and in 2023 awarded Leonardo a £870 million contract to complete development and integration of the radar. That contract spanned five years and covered the production design, development, and qualification, taking the radar up to a point at which it would be ready for production and integration onto the aircraft. 

Another contract in June 2025 valued at £205 million covered the procurement of long-lead items ahead of production. And now, finally, a  £453.5 million ($627.53 million/€523.57 million) has been awarded to BAE Systems to start production of the service-standard ECRS Mk 2 radar.

Together with Leonardo, BAE will produce and integrate 38 of the active electronically scanned (AESA) radar into the UK’s Tranche 3 Typhoons. The UK bought 40 Tranche 3 Typhoons, and BAE states that the full Tranche 3 fleet will receive the new radar “by the end of the decade,” in its January 22 press release. The upgraded Typhoons will serve alongside 67 Tranche 2 aircraft that will not go through the upgrade and are expected to remain in service to 2040 at least. 

Why is the ECRS Mk 2 better than Captor 90?

The ECRS Mk 2 will replace the Captor ECR 90 is mechanically scanned using one transmitter and receiver, which limits the accuracy and detection range of the system when compared to ECRS Mk 2. The Mk 2 is an active electronically scanned (AESA) radar, which uses a large number of transmit/receive modules (TRM) at the radar face. These modules use a single antenna to transmit and receive radar signals, switching between them and amplifying signals as required. There might be hundreds of TRMs as part of an AESA array, which means that hundreds of beams can be directed at targets in the space of microseconds. Because the beams are steered electrically rather than mechanically, they are much faster than a mechanically steered array. 

Leonardo, the ECRS developer, likens the effect to torches. A mechanically steered radar is like having one torch: it must be moved to illuminate what you are looking at. AESA is like having hundreds of torches pointing in many different directions. 

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Altogether this technology means that – within the same space on the aircraft – the radar can generate many more high-power radar beams simultaneously. This improves the range of detections as well as the accuracy and the number of roles the radar can perform. It can, for example, scan both ground and aerial targets. An aircraft would typically require a radar specialised for one or the other of these roles, but the ECRS series of radars can actually be used for imaging and mapping functions, likely improving the Typhoon’s targeting capability alongside the Litening V targeting pods they carry. Overall, the upgrade is expected to increase the detection range of the Typhoon, as well as to improve the ability of pilots to interpret the target tracks the radar returns. This will help fully exploit the potential of the Meteor air-to-air missile, which is estimated to have a range of 200 km. 

The ECRS Mk 2 is also expected to improve the Typhoon’s electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. EW is a returning priority for air superiority platforms like the Typhoon, having declined since the late 1980s. It is essential for ensuring strike package survival and ‘spoofing’ or degrading enemy air defences and other fighter aircraft. There is likely to be some crossover with the F-35 in this regard, which is essentially designed for deep strike engagements through the teeth of an adversary’s air defence network. 

Calibre comment: Brute force jamming

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Russia is good at electronic warfare. In fact, read enough Russian histories and academic articles, and you will find that they have good reason to claim development of the concept. Russian soldiers supposedly tapped into the telegraph wires used by Japanese forces in the Russo – Japanese War in 1905. In the modern day, Russian missiles carry their own jammers, which is fairly common around the world, but the jamming they produce is so powerful that Ukrainian pilots have to fly extremely close to burn through it. Often seeing the missile with their own eyes before their radar can. Russia takes a similar approach with its ground-based EW, but it can also deploy more intelligent techniques like spoofing. Jamming with a lot of power is sometimes referred to as brute force jamming, it requires a lot of power, but can be very effective against certain types of radar and radio. And Russian pilots are likely quite experienced both in air-to-air combat, and in terms of flying close to NATO-standard air defence systems. Altogether, this helps explain just some of the reasons why upgrades like the ECRS Mk 2 to the UK’s Typhoon fleet are so important. It will help pilots counter Russian jamming, as well as jam Russian radars to improve their own survivability. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on January 29, 2026. The lead image shows a Typhoon with the ECRS Mk 2 radar installed. Credit: BAE Systems.