AN/APG-79 Radar
for F/A-18E/F/G

for Meng kit

FabScale, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

The AN/APG-79 is a type of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar that was developed for use on the United States Navy's Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Boeing EA-18G Growler aircraft.

The radar's AESA technology provides quick updates on multiple targets, and its solid-state antenna construction makes it more reliable and cost-effective than traditional radar systems. The radar has a range of up to 150 km (80 nm) and can track multiple targets simultaneously. It is capable of firing weapons such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM's D model and guiding multiple missiles to targets located at varying distances and directions.

As of July 2008, 100 APG-79 sets had been delivered to the United States Navy, and the Navy expects to order around 437 production radars.

In January 2013, the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) disclosed some issues with the APG-79 radar during its initial operational testing, but upgrades have been made over time.

In full-rate production for the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, Raytheon has delivered over 700 systems to their Super Hornet and Growler squadrons so far.

FabScale Studio AN/APG-79 Radar for F/A-18E/F/G (MENG kit)

Moving on to the third instalment of the FabScale Studio’s 3D resin printed parts I received to review. As mentioned in a previous review, I had not heard of nor come across any of their products, here in Australia, but the quality of FabScale Studios is truly superb.

This time, the parts are supplied in a sturdy cardboard box and packed in individual plastic bags. There are 5 parts, being the nose cone and tip, the 2 parts that make up the actual radar  and the hinge.

They are printed in the sand-coloured resin. There is no sign of any layering and the detail is excellent.

The Meng kits of these variants, have the nose cone as a separate part, so installing this resin detail set should be a simple drop-in replacement. That being said, I don’t actually have a Meng kit to try the fit, which would have been useful.

And whilst I don’t have any Meng F/A-18 kits, I do have a Hasegawa and an Italeri Growler in the stash, and am wondering, with a small bit of surgery to remove the nose cones whether I could fit this set to one of them.

FabScale Studio has certainly produced the goods here - ultra-high quality, useful radar sets to detail your MENG F/A-18E/F/G kits. These will most definitely raise the quality of your build.

Highly Recommended.

Many thanks to FabScale Studio for the review sample

Text Copyright © 2024 by David Couche
Images Copyright © 2024 by Brett Green
Page Created 22 July, 2024
Last updated 22 July, 2024

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