Airbus Defence and Space has completed commissioning flights of the A320 Advanced Technology Research Aircraft (ATRA) at its Manching site in Bavaria and declared the modified airliner operational as the flying test bed for the Eurofighter Common Radar System Mark 1 (ECRS Mk1), the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar destined for new German and Spanish Eurofighters. Airbus announced the milestone on November 6, 2026.
The test bed arrives at a tight point in the schedule. Hensoldt and Indra, which develop the ECRS Mk1 under contract to Airbus, began live testing in June 2026, and first radar deliveries to Germany and Spain are targeted for 2027. The first Tranche 4 Eurofighter built under Germany’s 38-aircraft Project Quadriga flew from Manching on July 14, 2026, but early Quadriga jets will be delivered with an interim Step 0 radar, essentially an adapted ECRS Mk0, before the full Mk1 Step 1 standard is installed from 2027.
How the A320 ATRA Matures the Eurofighter ECRS Mk1 Radar
The ATRA belongs to the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) and has flown as the largest aircraft in its research fleet since 2008. To carry the Eurofighter radome and radar, Airbus engineers built a new forward section for the A320-232, reinforced the fuselage, and laid hundreds of meters of data cabling. A combined liquid and air cooling system regulates the radar’s temperature.
The cabin now houses several engineering workstations. Specialists see the same radar picture presented to a Eurofighter pilot, along with a full view of hardware behavior inside the nose section, and can load and evaluate new software versions in flight.
The modified aircraft first flew from DLR’s Braunschweig facility on January 21, 2025, without an active radar, to establish basic airworthiness, and the radar then went through extensive ground testing. By September 2025, the aircraft had also flown in its initial operational capability configuration, escorted by a German Air Force (Luftwaffe) Eurofighter from Tactical Air Wing 73 “Steinhoff.” According to Sebastian Ritz, head of the A320 Flying Test Bed Programme at Airbus Defence and Space, the recent commissioning flights confirmed that aircraft and radar perform effectively airborne. “This was the final step in the validation phase,” Ritz said.
Step 1 Architecture and Delivery Path to Quadriga and Halcón Jets
The ECRS Mk1 evolves from the ECRS Mk0, the Captor-E radar already flying on Kuwaiti and Qatari Eurofighters. Hensoldt says the Mk1 builds on elements of the Mk0 and keeps a mechanically repositionable antenna, giving a ±90-degree field of view and 50 percent more angular coverage than traditional AESA radars. The Mk1 adds a new multichannel digital receiver and new wideband transmit/receive modules. In April 2024, Germany and Spain also inserted new processor and antenna power supply and control subsystems into the Step 1 baseline. Hensoldt describes the architecture as covering advanced air-to-air, high-resolution air-to-ground, and both passive and active electronic warfare.
A €350 million contract extension awarded to Hensoldt in February 2025 funded radar test systems for the ATRA, revisions to the Step 1 standard, and an initial development phase for Step 2, which introduces task-based radar management to cut pilot workload. Erik Lorch, head of the E-Scan Mk1 Programme at Airbus, said the radar will equip Germany’s Quadriga and Tranche 5 aircraft and Spain’s Halcón jets, with retrofits of in-service Eurofighters to follow. Germany signed for 20 Tranche 5 jets on October 15, 2025, a roughly €3.75 billion buy with deliveries from 2031 to 2034. Spain has ordered 45 aircraft under Halcón I and Halcón II; the first Halcón I jet rolled out at Getafe on June 1, 2026.
Analysis: The ATRA is a schedule instrument as much as a test asset. Because early Quadriga aircraft arrive with an interim radar, every month the Mk1 Step 1 slips extends the period in which the Luftwaffe flies new airframes below their intended sensor standard and enlarges the eventual upgrade workload. A dedicated airborne laboratory that can test new software versions in flight gives Airbus a direct lever to compress that window. The United Kingdom has adopted the same logic for its separate ECRS Mk2, using a modified Avro RJ100 as its radar test bed.
The next markers are the first Quadriga delivery to the Luftwaffe, expected before the end of 2026, and Mk1 Step 1 installation on Quadriga aircraft from 2027. Airbus has not disclosed the duration of the ATRA campaign, its planned sortie count, or firm dates for Step 2 and for retrofitting Germany’s in-service fleet.
