Military and Strategic Journal
Issued by the Directorate of Morale Guidance at the General Command of the Armed Forces
United Arab Emirates
Founded in August 1971

2019-07-10

HENSOLDT’s Advanced Radar Technologies Counters New Threats

Today, Naval Forces are facing various new threats in the maritime battlespace and challenging asymmetric threat environments, which require unprecedented sensor capabilities. Both blue water missions and littoral scenarios are characterised by a high target density which, together with adverse environmental conditions such as ducting conditions, coastal clutter environment, hovering targets and windmill farms, pose real challenges to the ships’ mission effectiveness and survivability. New radar technologies, smartly employed by HENSOLDT’s latest TRS-4D naval radar, offer an affordable, effective and versatile answer to these multiple new environment and threats. The TRS-4D is HENSOLDT’s newest sensor in the C-Band (NATO G) naval radar family. It is available with a single face rotating antenna and also in a configuration with four fixed panels.
 
TRS-4D marks HENSOLDT´s innovative step beyond conventional radar systems into what is called a “new dimension” of operational capabilities. Based on latest Gallium Nitride Active Electronically Scanning Array (GaN AESA) antenna technology, smart and dedicated exploitation of AESA scanning in azimuth and elevation enables high search efficiency, track initiation performance, accuracy and track stability. The TRS-4D radars have been successfully introduced into service with European and U.S. customers (for example, the non-rotating variant on the German F125 frigates and the rotating variant on the U.S. Navy´s LCS-class ships). The TRS-4D provides a proven, low risk, modern solution that is interoperable with other partners. 
 
TRS-4D has shown excellent performance on land, in blue water and in complex littoral environments with mixed clutter and highest target densities. It is capable of detecting, tracking and classifying various types of air and sea targets, with particular emphasis on small, fast and low-flying missiles, small agile surface targets, fixed-wing aircraft and hovering helicopters. 
 
With multiple, digitally formed beams and innovative electronic scanning, the TRS-4D family allows unprecedented quick and full 3D surveillance for Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) and ASuW. Combined with highly sophisticated dynamic resource management, the AESA capabilities increase track update rates as well as accuracy required to counter current threats. Modern digital technology and compact design allow for easy integration with the long list of sensors equipment’s in a modern warship. Cued Track enables the robust tracking of identified high priority targets, either automatically or by external designation for enhanced target tracking support.
 
The radar system is designed for continuous operation and high operational availability with a high Mean Time Between Critical Failures (MTBCF). Maintenance-free missions are enabled by Military Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) high quality components and an architecture that allows for graceful degradation through the use of multiple solid state transmit and receive modules. The low Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), high Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) per component and the advanced built-in test equipment together assure easy maintenance and enable low Life Cycle costs of the radar system.
 
The all-in-one mode of the non-rotating system provides automatic detection and tracking of air and surface targets with an optimised waveform exploiting the possibility to scan electronically in any direction within the hemisphere. By comparison, the rotating variant fully exploits the AESA features under the constraint of the mechanical rotation: look-forward and look-back features enhance the cued track functionality tremendously. First, the tracks for dedicated targets are more stable, tracks for defined threats are more quickly set up and knowledge from other sources (neighbouring radars, satellites, etc.) are detected more quickly. TRS-4D is designed to provide a reliable tracking for a wide variety of targets at a very low false alarm rate. 
 
Unique Characteristics
Fast: For threatening targets, the TRS-4D initiates a track within a single scan using its electronic scanning capability. This results in a reliable, immediate target alert. The system automatically classifies targets as high priority threats and allocates additional radar illumination (cued track). This higher track update rate rapidly increases the track quality thus allowing target engagement with a minimum number of scans. This reduction of the functional chains duration leads to a quick overall system reaction. 
 
Accurate: The auto-calibration of all antenna components in combination with the given antenna aperture in G-Band yields highly accurate tracks even for the smallest air and surface threats, whether symmetric or asymmetric. Assisted by the radar’s high priority tracking, the combat management system (CMS) uses these tracks to directly cue the effectors, significantly reducing the response time. 
Resilient: The allocation of radar resources to different scan types provides a versatile combination of volume search, surface search and high-priority tracking. 
 
This combination of measurements results in robust tracking and reliable target classification, especially with manoeuvring threats. Modern Electronic Counter-Counter-Measure (ECCM) features and the high saturation level of the tracker ensure the performance even under adverse jamming or interference. The radar has sufficient capacity to uphold all functions simultaneously even in stressing situations with high target density and challenging littoral and coastal clutter environments. This ensures platform survivability and mission success. 
Sustainable: The modular architecture across the TRS-4D family permits customisation and incremental capability enhancements, ensuring the radar system is up-to-date throughout its life and set up for the challenges of the future.
 
The TRS-4D Fixed Panel configuration is designed for installation on one or two mast ships. It includes own mechanical shock mounts for all segments, thus significantly reducing the requirements on the mechanical mast structures. The upper deck segment (frontend) and lower deck segment (cabinets) can be installed at a distance up to 50 m apart and thereof 30 m in vertical distance.
 
Reference Text/Photo:www.hensoldt.com

Add Comment

Your comment was successfully added!

Visitors Comments

No Comments

Related Topics

Alpha Star becomes first ACJ319neo launch customer

Read More

ADNEC Promotes UMEX and SimTEX 2018, IDEX and NAVDEX 2019 Internationally

Read More

Italian Air Force Welcomes Leonardo’s HH-139B

Read More

Philippine Navy Commissions Ships with RAFAEL’s Integrated Naval Combat Suite

Read More

U.S. Army Fields Latest Chemical Detection Tech

Read More

Interpol Deliberates on Drones

Read More
Close

2024-02-26 Current issue
Pervious issues
2017-05-13
2014-03-16
2012-01-01
2014-01-01
2021-06-01
2021-02-21
2022-06-01
2021-09-15
.

Voting

?What about new design for our website

  • Excellent
  • Very Good
  • Good
Voting Number 1647