Incidentally, this does not only apply to radars, but to many more software based systems. For example combat management systems and cybersecurity systems. In the past, the only solution was to wait for the next ship or replace the radar with a new one during a midlife upgrade. But as with the previous radar, chances are that the new radar was not suitable for the next threat. In that case the user has to wait for another 15 years. To do that you have to need a new radar.” This requires special wave forms, special viewing frequency, search patterns, etc. “In order to be able to recognise and distinguish small UAVs, such as the average commercial drone, from birds, adjustments are needed. Old radars can detect them, but birds and UAVs are seen by the system as clutter and are not shown.” In terms of movement characteristics small UAVs are very similar to birds, with similar dimensions and fly at approximately the same speed. You might think that would require some small changes, but it is in fact quite complex.
“The small UAV is such an example,” says Adriaan Smits, head of Services at Thales. “They didn’t exist when for example the LW-08 radar for the S-frigates and M-frigates was developed and was not designed to detect UAVs. Naval vessels undergo maintenance at regular intervals and are often modernised once during their operational lifetime. But technology and threats are evolving faster and faster, creating threats that didn’t even exist when the ship was built. Thales is thinking about how ships can keep up with this.
0 kommentar(er)
