Airborne radar genius wins Academy Silver Medal
Dr Iain Scott, an engineer who has delivered some of the UKs most successful radar systems, will receive a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal at the Academy Awards Dinner today, in recognition of his personal contribution to the development of radar technology, one of the most crucial technologies of the modern world. Dr Scott (right), Capability Manager at Leonardo in the UK, has been a key figure in the creation of Leonardo’s Vixen-E family of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) airborne radars, which are now a major UK export worth hundreds of millions of pounds. AESA radar systems use multiple transmitters to send out and measure the reflection of radio waves to determine the distance and speed of targets. Individual control of these transmitters enables simultaneous functions ranging from surveillance and fire control to advanced data link communications.
While making huge progress in the performance, reliability and capabilities of radar, AESA radars have been impeded by their relatively narrow field of view – a challenge Dr Scott and his team at Leonardo in Edinburgh overcame with the development of the Raven ES-05 radar for Saab’s Gripen E fighter aircraft. The Raven ES-05 uses a repositionable antenna to provide a complete forward hemispherical scanning ability, a technological development that provides the Gripen E aircraft with far greater situational awareness and tactical advantage.
As the key sensor on the Gripen E, the breakthrough capabilities of the Raven ES-05 have been vital to the aircraft overcoming global competition for a number of international contracts, including multi-billion pound orders with the Swedish and Brazilian air forces. The Raven ES-05 is one of the largest and most strategically important radar projects run by Leonardo, with a development and production budget of several hundred million pounds and employing a highly skilled engineering team in Edinburgh and a wide network of national suppliers.
Dr Iain Scott said: “I am delighted to receive this award, and that the Royal Academy of Engineering has recognised the contribution that Leonardo and the Raven ES-05 radar programme has made to the UK economy. At the start we needed to quickly establish the trust of Saab, an extremely knowledgeable and capable customer. The depth of expertise in the whole Leonardo team allowed me to gain Saab’s confidence, a relationship that continues to this day. We are now seeing the technology and solutions that have been developed on Raven ES-05 being adopted in other radar systems, a testament to the ingenuity and capability of UK engineering.”
Dr Scott’s technical expertise has been fundamental in establishing Leonardo in the UK as one of the biggest and most successful airborne radar manufacturers in the world. In 2001 Leonardo began developing AESA radar technology for global markets, a major technical departure for the company that needed the support of engineers capable of grasping the complexities of the new technology. Dr Scott joined Leonardo after completing his PhD in radar signal processing at the University of Edinburgh, rapidly progressing within the company and leading on many of the key advances in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques. Dr Scott led the algorithm development, implementation and verification of the company’s SAR techniques to such a high level that SAR is now a standard offering in all Leonardo radar products.
Recognising Dr Scott’s exceptional expertise and team leadership skills he was appointed Chief Systems Engineer for the company’s Vixen family of combat aircraft radar systems. The first system developed under his leadership was selected for use by the US Customs and Border Protection agency – a huge coup for a UK-based radar company as the USA is itself one of the world-leading developers of AESA technology.
Professor Tony Kinghorn FREng, Chief Technical Officer for RF Systems at Leonardo, who nominated Dr Scott for the medal, said: “Dr Scott is an outstanding engineer with a deep knowledge of all aspects of radar design and it would have been impossible to produce such a successful radar system without his clear vision and direction. The commercial success of the Raven ES-05 truly demonstrates the breadth and scope of Dr Scott’s engineering capabilities- his deep understanding of the technology coupled with his commercial awareness and his ability to build relationships of trust with Saab were all vital to the success of the programme.”