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2021-12-05

Saab Launches Mobile High-mast Solution for Giraffe 4A Radar

Saab recently launched a new mobile high-mast solution with its Finnish partner Conlog Oy, for fast and efficient deployment to meet modern threats of low altitude such as cruise missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the battlefield.

The research and development as well as the production will be located in both Sweden and Finland and will leverage on the companies’ respective expertise to create a unique capability for the global market.

The new mobile high-mast solution for Giraffe 4A is designed to handle forest environments with high obstacles as well as urban surroundings with large buildings disrupting the radar’s line of sight.

“The unique combination of the system’s mobility, and the high-mast, gives the operators capability and creates time to act,” says Markus Borgljung, Vice President, Head of Radar Solutions, Business area Surveillance, Saab.

“Conlog has over 30 years of experience in developing mobile solutions for challenging environments and are pleased to be a part of this co-development product,” adds Markku Hellstén, Vice President Marketing, Conlog Oy.

Unique Surveillance Capabilities

Giraffe 4A is a multifunctional medium to long-range AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, fully adaptable for different missions with simultaneous capabilities. It provides an all-weather coverage against air targets from low, slow, and small targets (UAVs) to fast moving fighters as well as hyper- and supersonic missiles, RAM targets and detection/tracking of jammer strobes.

The radar can support and designate a variety of Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD), solutions and missiles systems with its unique surveillance capabilities. With over 60 years of experience in building radars, this new solution will be a tactical benefit of flexibility for units in the field of operation.

The system gives a high accuracy and update rate combined with 360-degree monitoring of the air volume as well as advanced stop and stare capabilities.

Giraffe 4A combines the battle-proven designs from the Arthur and Giraffe AMB product families with an all-new radar sensor, based on AESA technology. With a known threat direction, the system can operate in a sector mode and increase the frequency to up to 8 Hz.

Giraffe 4A can be installed either as a fixed installation or in a mobile configuration. Both can be controlled remotely or locally. The mobile configuration is self-contained and is ideal as a mobile deployable air surveillance asset.

With an instrumented range of up to 400 km in the air surveillance role, Giraffe 4A is armed with awareness. Unlike traditional air surveillance radars, the multifunctional Giraffe 4A also provides GBAD modes with engagement-quality target data for VSHORAD to MRAD effectors due to very high plot accuracy and update rate.

In its role as GBAD, Giraffe 4A provides forces with a swift understanding of the air situation, enabling immediate and effective response to changing threats and new tactics in shifting operational conditions. This flexible solution gives complete coverage to support forces by providing situational awareness and target data for engagement. It also enables the operator to focus on a certain sector enabling an even longer detection range or an optimisation to handle very fast targets.

In the weapon-locating role, Giraffe 4A can handle artillery scenarios and rapidly locate hostile artillery fire based on calculations of points of origin and points of impact to support effective counter battery fire, moving the hostile artillery from threat to target. It can also support troops with warnings for incoming fire.

Latest Capability

Giraffe 4A uses powerful and compact Gallium Nitride (GaN) components to provide state-of-the-art performance and reliability. It is designed in a customer friendly package, minimising the Life Cycle Cost (LCC). To secure the fulfilment of all operations, the system design includes redundancy on critical parts to secure full performance and customer capability until planned maintenance. The design is prepared for further upgrades to support forces with the latest capability as the threats evolve.

Giraffe 4A can be deployed by two persons in less than 10 minutes and teardown takes less than five minutes. It can also be airlifted by a single C-130 using standard equipment for container handling. With larger aircraft, such as the IL-76, C-17 or A400M the system can be transported as drive-on/drive-off cargo.

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