https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/de...rriers-1369551
Fears raised over £269m aerial radar system that will be the 'eyes and ears' of Royal Navy's Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers
Crowsnest, the most advanced aerial early warning sensor ever built for the Senior Service, is reportedly ‘too sensitive to use’. The state-of-the-art tech, which will be fitted onto Merlin Mark 2 helicopters, will be the ‘eyes and ears’ for Britain’s two £6.2bn aircraft carriers when on operations.
Sources close to the project have warned IT issues with the sensor array could delay the programme’s rollout, which has already seen flight trials pushed back by several months.
Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, which is leading the project with defence firm Thales, insisted the hi-tech kit would be ready in time for supercarrier HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first mission next year. But an insider said: ‘People are running around like blue-arsed flies on this. They’re so far behind on the entire system we can’t train the flight crews because the simulators aren’t ready yet. We’re having to write software for stuff that isn’t even ready.’........
A report by Whitehall spending watchdogs at the National Audit Office in 2017 rated the project as ‘amber’, meaning successful delivery ‘appeared feasible’ but that ‘significant issues’ already existed.
A high-ranking naval officer told
The News delays were a worry and warned of a ‘reluctance’ within industry to seek ‘independent help’ when issues arose.
The senior officer added: ‘It will happen, it’s got to happen… Crowsnest is a terribly important part of the whole carrier strike capability.’