Agilent 85037A Scalar Network Analyzer Detector Repair

Added: Apr 02, 2018 12:35 pm

The primary mission of the AN/ALQ-131/184 Electronic Countermeasures Pod is to identify and counter increasingly complex, diverse enemy air defense systems. The pods consists of a multitude of receiver, transmitter and signal processing sub-systems. In addition, several support tools and specialized test and measurement equipment (ALM-256 Intermediate Level Support Equipment (ILSE)) and ALM-233 Automatic Support Equipment (ASE))complete the overall system architecture. The system was first designed, developed, assembled and deployed in the mid-1970s with incremental hardware and data-flow upgrades since then. Since the early 1990s the AN/ALQ-131 and AN/ALQ-184 have been the primary defensive system for the F-16 and A-10 combat aircraft.

The Agilent 8757D SNA is currently used to perform period maintenance of the ALQ-184 and ALQ-131 Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) pods. The 85037A detector is used in conjunction with the SNA to take sweeping power measurements for both systems. Both the 8757D SNA and the 85037A detectors are no longer manufactured and are considered obsolete. The detector is a weak link item in the support equipment station and requires immediate repair.