Hensoldt Installs Second Final System
The installation of Hensoldt’s ASR-NG Air Traffic Control systems in Australia is picking up speed, the company announced on 9 August. Recently, the second Final System has completed site installation, joining one Interim System and another Final System already installed.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has purchased nine ASR-NG Fixed Defence Air Traffic Control Surveillance Sensors (FDATCSS), also referred to as AIR 5431 Phase2, and one Operational Maintenance Trainer (OMT). Due to specific requirements for Final systems at two of the sites, two Interim systems are being installed to provide the customer with continuous radar coverage while the legacy radars are removed and replaced in situ with new Hensoldt solutions.
The installation poses particular challenges because the area covered is almost the size of Western Europe. Oakey, near Brisbane, the second Final System, has now completed site installation and joins East Sale, the first Interim System, and Tindal, the first Final System, which is installed in the far north of Australia. All systems are now in the Set-to-Work phase, which will lead to Site Acceptance Testing and then operations. Tindal is expected to be operational in November 2018. The Nowra Interim in New South Wales is currently being installed. Additionally, the OMT has just ‘power at RAAF Base Amberley, near Brisbane. Hensoldt is working together with Australian partners IE-Asia Pacific Pty Ltd and Nova Systems Pty Ltd to execute the programme.
Each of the ASR radars consists of an integrated primary and secondary radar system. The first, based on a semiconductor transmitter, helps to detect non-cooperative objects such as small aircraft without transponders or hostile aircraft and includes special signal processing techniques for wide-area surveillance. The secondary radar, MSSR 2000 I, provides automatic identification of cooperative aircraft. It meets the new Mode S/Mode 5 air traffic control standard, which greatly improves aircraft identification queries and is currently being introduced in all NATO and allied forces.
Amongst other customers for Hensoldt air traffic control solutions, the company has equipped the German armed forces’ airfields with the Airport Surveillance Radar, S-Band (ASR-S) airport surveillance radar and is delivering a complete approach control system for military airfields in Switzerland. Different versions of its new ASR-NG radar are under contract in Canada and the UK. The MSSR 2000 I secondary radar is deployed for military friend-or-foe identification by the naval forces of Germany, France, Norway and Finland.
@CAP:
