Thales lands contract for Omani Patrol Vessels

The Singapore shipyard ST Marine and Thales Nederland have signed a contract for the delivery and installation of sensors and a combat management system that will be installed on the four Al-Ofouq class patrol vessels that are to be built for the Sultanate of Oman.

Thales will supply the Tacticos Combat Management System, the Variant surveillance radar and  the STIR 1.2 EO Mk2 radar E/O tracking system and the ESM system. Thales is also responsible for all Combat System Integration activities.

Thales Nederland CEO Gerben Edelijn says: “We are very proud to have been awarded this contract as the international competition was fierce. This says very much about Thales’ reputation and excellent technical solutions.”

This contract is a confirmation of the excellent relation Thales enjoys with the Sultanate of Oman. It reinforces Thales’ presence in the Middle East. Furthermore it adds a new shipyard to the long list of international Naval shipbuilders that Thales works with worldwide, thus widening the scope as a yard-independent Naval system supplier.

 Variant for Omani Patrol Vessels

Royal Netherlands Navy and Thales sign

Today, the Netherlands Defence Materiel Organization and Thales Nederland signed an agreement to modify the four SMART-L volume search radars installed on the “De Zeven Provinciën” class air defence and command frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The new SMART-L radar will be optimized for the early detection of ballistic missiles.

SMART-L will be able to detect ballistic missiles shortly after their launch. It has this early warning capability simultaneously with its traditional air defence capability. SMART-L will be able to detect and track several threats simultaneously and make an accurate calculation of each missile’s ballistic trajectory, and accurately estimate its point of impact as well as its launch position. SMART-L is a volume search radar that scans large volumes of the air space so that it can detect missiles without external cues.

The SMART-L and its sister, the S1850M Long Range Radar are used by the navies from Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and South Korea. All these radars could in principle profit from the modification package contracted by the Netherlands' Defence Materiel Organisation.

Gerben Edelijn, CEO of Thales Nederland: “This contract confirms our leading position world-wide in naval sensor technology and system integration. Through this contract we support NATO’s long-term plans for a maritime defence against ballistic missiles.”

Northrop Grumman to Supply Airborne Fire Control Radars to Thailand, Iraq and Oman for F-16s

Northrop Grumman Corporation has received an $87.8 million foreign military sales (FMS) contract to provide the APG-68(V)9 airborne fire control radar to Thailand, Iraq and Oman for use on F-16 fighter aircraft.

The company will deliver six radar systems to the Royal Thai Air Force, 22 radar systems to the Iraqi Air Force and 15 radar systems to the Royal Air Force of Oman, for a total of 43 systems. Deliveries are expected to be completed by March 2015. The FMS contract is managed by the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

"Selection of the APG-68(V)9 Fire Control Radar by Thailand, Oman and Iraq reaffirms its value and baseline position for all new F-16 production and F-16 avionics upgrades," said Tim Winter, Northrop Grumman's vice president for Global Systems Solutions. "The APG-68(V)9 radar's operational performance, affordable acquisition cost, low sustainment cost and immediate availability has led 12 nations to procure almost 750 systems so far."

The APG-68(V)9 enables engagement of air-to-air and air-to-surface threats with greater accuracy and at greater ranges than legacy F-16 fire control radars. The radar provides autonomous, all-environment, precision air-to-surface targeting with a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar ground mapping mode.

Northrop Grumman has been developing, integrating and producing F-16 fire control radars for 36 years. This includes three variants of the APG-66; eight variants of the APG-68; the APG-80 Airborne Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), developed specifically for the F-16 Block 60; and the newly introduced Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) AESA. The company's long heritage in fire control radars also includes fire control radars for the B-1, F-22 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The contract is in line with U.S. defense policy of enabling the Iraqi Air Force to assume sovereign air defense duties, and also supports foreign relations with partners Thailand and Oman.

Anti-Missile Radar in S.Russia To Go on Combat Duty by Yearend

A new-generation Voronezh-DM class anti-missile radar will enter combat duty near the town of Armavir in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region around the end of the year, the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces commander, Oleg Ostapenko, said on Tuesday.

“The [radar] station is in the final stage of preparations for entering combat duty,” Ostapenko told journalists at the radar site. “We are planning to almost wrap up the work on the station approximately by the end of the year.”

He added that the station may enter combat duty “ahead of the approved schedule.”

The anti-missile radar near Armavir is one of the four new-generation Voronezh-class radars that have been put into operation in Russia in recent years.

Two Voronezh-M radars have been deployed in Lekhtusi near St. Petersburg and near the town of Usolye-Sibirskoe in Siberia’s Irkutsk Region.

Another Voronezh-DM class radar stationed in the westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad was put on combat duty in November last year in what then-President Dmitry Medvedev said was part of Russia’s response to U.S. and NATO European missile defense shield plans.

Voronezh-DM class radars have a range of 6,000 kilometers. They can be more quickly deployed to a new site and require a smaller crew to operate it compared to previous generation stations.

Two sections of the Armavir radar that have been put into operation have allowed monitoring the area from France and Spain in the west, to Algeria in the southwest, Sudan in the south, and Iran, Afghanistan and parts of India and Pakistan in the southeast, its crew said.

Ostapenko also said on Tuesday the Aerospace Defense Forces plan to complete the entire Voronezh radar deployment program before the 2020 deadline.

“We are doing everything we can to narrow this timeframe,” he said.

Aerospace Defense Forces spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin has previously said Voronezh-class radars were planned to be deployed near the town of Pechora in Russia’s Komi Republic, the Siberian cities of Barnaul and Yeniseisk.

General Dynamics to Supply Modernized Instrumentation Radars for U.S Army

With the aim to replace the currently used radar systems in the test ranges of the U.S. Army, a contract to manufacture and deploy a modernized variety of instrumentation radars has been awarded to a General Dynamics C4 Systems-led team. An overall potential value of $385 million within 10 years can be achieved by the Range Radar Replacement Program (RRRP) when all options are exercised.

The initial award of $29 million is allocated for funding toward manufacturing, development and engineering phases of the program. This amount will also be spent on integration and production of new radar systems at Yuma Test Center, Ariz; White Sands Test Center, N.M.; Redstone Test Center, Ala and Aberdeen Test Center, Md.

The President of General Dynamics C4 Systems, Chris Marzilli stated that the XSTAR instrumentation radars possess the ability to track 40 test objects in a simultaneous manner. The XSTAR instrumentation radars according to Marzilli reduce the delivering time of test-data and results with high-quality and provide accurate position, time and space information.

The General Dynamics C4 Systems-led team according to Marzilli has offered an extremely cost-effective combination of program management expertise, technologies and systems that are capable of fulfilling the Army’s goal of expanding test-related services and modernizing the radar systems.

Russia installs new radars as a deterrent

New radar system in Siberia and Russia's Far East is expected to monitor the Pacific Rim.

In May, a Voronezh-M early warning radar was put into operation in Russia’s Irkutsk Region near town of Usolye-Sibirskoe. It is the fourth radar of this kind put into operation in recent years.

Earlier, Russia installed the Voronezh-M early warning radar in Lekhtusi near St. Petersburg, the Voronezh-DM near Armavir in the Krasnodar Region and one more Voronezh-DM in the exclave region of Kaliningrad. These three form a sort of an anti-missile arc to monitor missile-threat directions and work together with the operating early warning radars: Daryal, Dnepr, Dnestr and Volga in Olenegorsk (Murmansk region), Pechora (the Komi Republic), Gantsevichi (Belarus), Gabala (Azerbaijan), on Lake Balkhash (Kazakhstan), in Usolye-Sibirskoe and Yeniseisk in the Krasnodar region.

 

New Voronezh-M and Voronezh-DM radars are planned for other regions of the country as well.

 The military has made no secret of the fact that these radars are a response to U.S. and NATO plans to establish missile defense in Eastern Europe. Lieutenant General Oleg Ostapenko, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Space Forces, said radars of this kind “are employed as elements of the nuclear deterrence system. It is only natural that each new radar put into duty is an additional reason for the concerned parties [the U.S. and NATO] to think about their actions.”

The new radar located near Irkutsk monitors an area with a radius of 3,700 miles covering a 120-degree arc. Its field of vision includes Japan, China, both Koreas, Vietnam, the Bay of Bengal and most of India. And this is only the first component of the radar unit; a second one is projected to be launched in six months to monitor an area with the same range and the same arc, but also covering the central and northern parts of the Pacific, including the west coast of the U.S.

 

All missile launches in this area will be detected by space monitoring system satellites, and launch information will be received by the early warning radars. The computer will calculate the trajectory of the missile and its target, and transmit the data to the Moscow-based central control of the space forces in Solnechnogorsk. The launch will be reported to the president and, following his orders, the central control will respond appropriately. If the incoming missile threatens the country and its population, it may be intercepted; the control center may also opt for a retaliatory strike or retaliatory counter-strike. All of this must be decided in a matter of minutes. The military believes that if a potential enemy is aware of Russia’s capability, it is unlikely to make such a reckless move as launching a missile.

 

The Voronezh-M radar is a key element of this system. It is capable of detecting and identifying modern and advanced threats and acts as an instrument of deterrence preventing missile attacks and increasing the effectiveness of retaliation. Along with the space monitoring system satellites, it is capable of detecting launches of strategic ballistic missiles, intermediate range missiles, short-range missiles, cruise missiles and various aircraft ranging from strategic bomber to fighters.

 

Viewed at close range, the Voronezh-M radar unit looks like a football field standing on its end at an angle of 75 degrees to the horizon. It has 1,566 radio transmitters or transmitter-receivers. Compared to previous models, it has enhanced functionality and is much cheaper.

 

“Unlike the previous-generation radars Dnepr and Daryal, the new radar unit does not include a plant to make distilled water for cooling the transmitters; they are cooled by wind instead. Also, the new unit requires much fewer personnel to run it,” said Sergei Boev, director general of the Radiotechnical and Informational Systems company.

Old radar systems that use such cooling plants will be phased out and as soon as new units have been ready for combat duty, according to Boev.

“Russia does not have plans to deploy new radars abroad,” said Ostapenko. “The track record of our relations with Ukraine concerning the Mukachevo station and the one near Sevastopol, with Azerbaijan concerning Gabala, and minor problems with the radar on Lake Balkhash require us to rely on our own resources and territory.”

Backpack Radar system from SpotterRF

SpotterRF’s new backpack radar system is based around its three-pound M80 and four-pound M600C synthetic aperture radar modules. “Situational awareness at night collapses around you and NVGs limit a sentry’s field of view,” says SpotterRF CEO Logan Harris. “That’s why coupling ground based radar with imaging into a backpack unit is such a potent force multiplier.”

The micro radar system uses a pair of radar pods that provide a 180-degree field of coverage out to 1,000 meters. In addition to the two hard bound-book-sized radar units, the system includes a similarly sized networking module, a tablet computer used to view the radar system’s web-based output, and cables, tripod, battery and a backpack.

The basis for the SpotterRF system came from the Scan Eagle UAV program. Harris says he split the SpotterRF off as a business unit of his IMSAR enterprise that developed a two-pound SAR for the Scan Eagle. He recognized the technology’s value on the ground filling the void between unmanned ground sensors and large ground surveillance radar systems.

“What we do is fit between UGS and large ground surveillance radars,” Harris said. “Ground-based radar has a huge 10-kilometer range — they have a large footprint, are expensive and have large personnel demands associated with their use and maintenance. In contrast, SpotterRF’s backpack system covers a 150-acre track, 1,000 meters by 800 meters wide.

Synthetic aperture radar produces images, but it does not provide a tracking ability. SpotterRF is a SAR with an onboard CPU that combines imaging, tracking and discrimination. The system is designed primarily for small tactical teams in sentry, surveillance, and unattended surveillance roles and can be transported easily.

The three-pound M80 unit provides detection of a walking person out to 500 meters (150m crawling). The M600C weighs four pounds and provides detection out to 1,000 meters (250m crawling). The units are powered by a 2590 battery for 22 hours. Both units can be powered from any DC power source from 12v to 30v. Power and networking connections are via a ruggedized, waterproof Ethernet connector. The single connection uses a power over Ethernet injector to simplify connections. The radar panels are networked using a network hub that can join four panels into an array using only Ethernet cables for communication and power.

Output and control of the units is performed via a simple standards compliant web interface, making the unit accessible from any device with a web browser. The web UI display identifies and tracks in real time because the panels themselves provide all the horsepower to process the tracking algorithm and output the data as a graphic UI.

The system is based on motion tracking radar, so discrimination of moving, but unimportant objects must be filtered out. The units identify and filter out wind-blown trees and small animals with a few adjustments by the unit operator. Large animals are the biggest challenge; discriminating between a large animal and a human requires advanced artificial or human intelligence.