Taiwan looks at upgrading ground-based air surveillance radar

Officials from Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) have told MONCh that it is developing a number of upgrades for its Mobile Phased Array Radar which is in service with the Republic of China Army (ROCA). The officials added that the planned upgrades include enhancements to the radar’s back end, principally its processing, to improve its instrumented range and its target discrimination. Such improvements could take the form of hardware and software upgrades.

According to the company’s literature, the radar currently has an instrumented range of circa 38.8 nautical miles (72 kilometres) and can track up to 64 targets simultaneously, providing up to 20 degrees of search elevation, and up to 60 degrees of tracking elevation coverage.

The ROCA is acquiring in excess of 100 examples of the MPAR, the delivery of which commenced around five years ago and, although demurring from detailing how many examples of the radar have been delivered to date, company officials noted that deliveries are still ongoing and could continue for up to another five years.

Thomas Withington