L-band radar enables the radar to detect targets within a forest
At LAAD 2017, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) revealed details of a new foliage-penetrating radar that provides operators with the ability to see through forests, something that has typically been a blindspot for fixed-base surveillance systems.
The 2112 FP has been operational with one customer for some 4-5 years, but the company has only just been given authorisation by the Israeli government to publicly discuss the system.
The L-band radar enables the radar to detect targets within a forest, and can be adjusted to aim at the foliage from different angles.
“This is a unique radar in terms of its ability to carry out detection in a forest,” Eyal Ben David, consultant for marketing and sales at IAI’s Elta division, told Monch at the LAAD exhibition. “The accuracy, and the ability of the radar to look through the forest, is the name of the game.”
Now IAI has been granted permission to publicly discuss the system, it is marketing it at a number of potential customers.
“Brazil is very important, as is the rest of Latin America,” David said, noting that the system would be suited for border protection, including the monitoring of illegal immigration and activities.
IAI has received a contact from an undisclosed South American country to provide an integrated border control system, and while this radar is not currently included, it could eventually be an option, David says.
This system will cover four different borders that require different sensor integrations due to the varying terrains of each border. Systems that will be integrated include the BirdEye 650D and 400 unmanned air vehicles, plus the HoverMast 100 UAV and ground-based radar systems.
David notes that local cooperation in countries like Brazil is, “critical,” adding that, “we must be local in country. More than that, we are transferring technology,” he adds. “We are always considering integrating the system – or even developing it – here [in Brazil].”
IAI has two key partnerships in country, including Avionics Services with which it develops the HERON-derived CACADOR UAV (story here), as well as Iacit that helps market radar systems for IAI in Brazil (story here).
The all-weather family of radar systems that the FP derives from is being used worldwide, but is mainly operated by domestic services in Israel. IAI has also developed a new long-range variant of the system, which can detect targets up to 22km.
The family has a 90° detection range, and four systems can be integrated to provide a 360° picture. The radar systems are capable of auto-classification, and a camera is used to identify a detected target.
Beth Stevenson
