It comes after the German parliament in June approved a contract award to aircraft manufacturer Airbus worth almost US$3 billion for a new version of the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, dubbed Captor-E. More than half of that investment will go to sensor specialist Hensoldt, a former Airbus subsidiary. The contract is aimed at retrofitting roughly 130 German and Spanish aircraft in the mid-2020s, according to Hensoldt.