In the above picture, a passenger plane is flying under the escort of an EF2000 Typhoon fighter jet. Strangely, the nose of this aircraft is equipped with a pointed nose similar to that of a Typhoon fighter jet. What's going on here? In fact, this is a radar verification aircraft modified from Airbus A320 series passenger planes, mainly responsible for aircraft radar verification work. The appearance shown in the picture is for testing the new generation ECRS Mk1 airborne active phased array radar. In order to install the ECRS Mk1 airborne active phased array radar, technicians specially designed a brand new radar cover for the aircraft and modified the interior of the body. Various instruments were installed to detect the working condition of the radar system, and scientific researchers responsible for the radar system work were carried out to solve various problems that occurred during the testing process of the radar at any time. Why use a passenger plane for fighter jet onboard radar verification instead of directly installing the radar on the fighter jet for testing? In addition to reducing the risk of fighter jets, the main reason is that commercial aircraft, as mature flight platforms, can be well compatible with radar systems after installation, providing high safety guarantees for testing. In addition, the cabin space of the aircraft is relatively large, which can accommodate more testing equipment and personnel, and the idle time is also longer. One test can complete multiple testing tasks, greatly reducing the testing time of the radar system. For this reason, many countries have precedents of using passenger planes as aircraft borne radar testing platforms for fighter jets. For example, the United States once used the Boeing 757 aircraft as the airborne radar testing platform for the F-22 fighter jet, while Russia used the Ilyich series aircraft as the airborne radar testing platform. The ECRS Mk1 airborne active phased array radar tested this time is mainly used for upgrading and retrofitting the Typhoon fighter jet. Unlike traditional mechanical scanning radar, this radar electronically controls the beam pointing, enabling faster scanning and tracking of targets. At the same time, relying on the new generation of digital multi-channel processors, it has strong active/passive electronic warfare functions and can interfere with enemy launched radar guided air-to-air missiles and ground to air missiles, enhancing the situational awareness and battlefield survival capability of fighter jets. So, no wonder the noses of the two planes are similar. It turns out they were preparing for a nose change. (New Society)