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Cassidian’s flexible radar sensor concept
USINFO | 2013-10-09 11:29
This success confirms Cassidian’s concept of a software-defined sensor, which can be used for different surveillance tasks while only requiring minor modifications. The use of a special modular architecture permits scalability of bandwidth, frequency band and processing performance. This signifies great progress compared to conventional radars, which are normally optimised for a specific task in a narrow frequency band. Rapid adaptation to new operational requirements through simple, configurable firmware and software together with a variable cooling design make SmartRadar suitable for a multitude of manned and unmanned platforms of different sizes.
One version of Cassidian’s SmartRadar is integrated into a pod equipped with an autonomous cooling system, making it easy to adapt to various mission aircraft.
The high performance of the radar is largely due to state-of-the-art AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) technology which uses a large number of transmitter and receiver (T/R) modules in the antenna. These modules are developed and manufactured by Cassidian in its own facility, known as the “Microwave Factory”. Cassidian is the pioneer of this technology in Europe and delivers similar T/R modules for the TerraSAR earth observation satellite, the radar systems for the German Navy’s new F125-class frigates and the SPEXER 2000 border surveillance radar, amongst others.
