Ground Surveillance Radar:AMR
11/21/14
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Korenromp continues that the radar is used by some customers in the Asia-Pacific region, although the company does not disclose their identity. He continued that “the Dutch have used the Squire in Afghanistan, as have Canada and the Danish armed forces. The radar has also been used in Iraq.” The Squire uses FMCW architecture with Doppler filtering to determine target speed.
American Adaptability
US suppliers of ground surveillance radar include Telephonics, SRC and FLIR Systems. Telephonics’ manufactures the ARSS (Advanced Radar Surveillance System). This X-band Pulse Doppler radar is in service with the US armed forces who have used it to protect Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. A peak power output of five watts help to reduce the radar’s chances of detection and interception by electronic warfare systems. Capable of detecting a pedestrian at twelve kilometres and a large vehicle at 30km (19 miles), the radar, like the Spexer family discussed above, can also detect aircraft such as a hovering helicopter at a range of eight nautical miles (15km). An automatic trackwhile-scan function is sufficient to monitor up to 300 targets, with 360 degrees of azimuth being covered. Customers purchasing the ARSS have the option of installing a weapons location function onto the radar to assist the detection of artillery fire. SRC’s SR Hawk is a Ku-band radar which can track up to 350 targets simultaneously across a 360 degree azimuth. The radar can detect air targets as it has an elevation of up to 22 degrees. Using Pulse Doppler RF transmissions, the SR Hawk can detect a pedestrian at twelve kilometres, with a vehicle being detected at 30km and a small aircraft such as an ultralight at seven nautical miles (13km). Like many of the ground surveillance radars discussed in this article, the SR Hawk can accommodate an optronics system to provide additional information to the operator regarding the target that they are seeing. Paul Venesky, a programme manager at the company says that it has supplied its SR Hawk family radars to “Taiwan Taoyuan Airport for perimeter surveillance and avian radars for
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SRC’s Hawk ground surveillance radar can be used to not only detect ground targets but also aircraft and incoming artillery fire. The radar typifies the trend towards multifunction systems which can monitor the locale for a variety of threats © SRC
bird strike avoidance.” A robust design is also standard, with Mr. Venesky noting that the radar “has been designed to operate in a wide range of environments including extreme hot and cold, wind, rain, salt, humidity, ice and snow.” Although well known for their optronics, FLIR Systems offer a range of ground surveillance radars in their Ranger product line. The Ranger R1 is a Ka-band radar which can detect targets such as a person crawling at ranges of between five and 700 metres (16-2296ft). Like the Ranger R1, the Ranger R2 is also a Ka-band radar, although it has detection ranges of between five and 1400 metres (16-4593ft) for people
Although well known for their optronics, FLIR Systems offer a range of ground surveillance radars
and vehicles. Ranges increase still further with the Ranger R20SS which can detect a pedestrian at up to ten kilometres (six miles), while the company’s Ranger R3D is somewhat unique in integrating both FMCW and Pulse Doppler architecture. This enables the operator to use the ideal type of RF transmission depending on their operating environment. Other ground surveillance radars in the company’s stable include the Ranger R5 designed to operate
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in unforgiving desert environments and the dual mode FMCW/Pulse Doppler Ranger R5D perimeter surveillance radar.
Future Trends
In terms of the expected design trends for ground surveillance radar, Mr. Korenromp argues that one of the trends which will be increasingly witnessed is the utilisation of AESA technology. As this article has illustrated, some ground surveillance radars are already using AESA, such as RADA’s RPS42 and Airbus Defence and Space’s Spexer family. In addition, the range of tasks which such radars will be expected to do could expand further to include tasks such as weapons location for artillery fire. Armies already have dedicated weapons locating radars such as the Raytheon AN/TPQ36/37 Firefinder family which are used across the world. There may be some scope to fold in some, if not all, of the weapons locating functions into tomorrow’s ground surveillance radars. Telephonics’ ARSS (see above) is blazing a trend in this regard. The advent of AESA technology, which increases the number of tasks which a single radar can perform simultaneously, could offer potential in this regard. Allied to the ability to detect hostile fire, the proliferation of small UAVs around the world for battlefield reconnaissance could also shape future design criteria with the growing importance for ground surveillance radars to be able to detect and track such targets.