A few years ago, Westlands put forward a proposal for a 'compound 101' with stub wings, augmented exhausts and a combined power/flight controls system to provide better speed/height/endurance for an 'AEW/MASC' solution. Anyone know anything more about this one?
In the meantime, Carson blades and uprated engines for the ASACS 7 might very well need to be the stop gap. Just money, right?
The V-22 solution described earlier was designed to be palletized and allow a standard V-22 to take the radar fit fairly quickly, using the ramp aperture to deploy the dome. Not sure that the comms and power requirements wouldn't have led to a special airframe in any case, though.
That said, the Osprey really could offer a very neat solution in terms of speed and endurance. Costly, though.
best Regards as ever,
Engines