Optimal Antenna and Radome Technology Enables Detect-and-Avoid

Hensoldt announced an important enhancement to its UAS collision avoidance radar solution on 26 June.

As part of extensive laboratory tests and measurements, the company has developed a special radome technology which protects the radar from mechanical environmental influence, such as bird strikes or lightning, while minimally affecting the radar’s functionality. The architecture of the new radome was initially tailored to a specific test aircraft, but can be adapted to other platforms. Further flight tests are scheduled to take place this summer.

Hensoldt has developed a demonstrator for a so-called detect-and-avoid radar system, which uses the latest radar technology to detect objects in the flight path of a UAS and to give early warning of any threat of collision following precise evaluation of flight direction. At the same time, the sensor also assumes all the functions of a weather radar system. The multifunction radar for UAS is being presented for the first time to the general public in Ulm, during the International Radar Symposium organised by the German Institute for Navigation (DGON).

The radar system uses state-of-the-art active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology, which allows several detection tasks to be carried out at the same time and enables objects to be detected extremely fast, replacing the pilot’s visual assessment of the situation. Thanks to its excellent detection capabilities, the multifunction radar is equally suitable for military and civilian UAS, for the delivery of cargo, for example.

The radar is incorporated into the nose of the UAS and needs to be protected by a radome that is electrically transparent, has exactly the same thickness across the board and is adapted to the aerodynamics of the platform. This, however, requires special knowledge of materials processing and the operating principle of radar systems.