Higher definition for naval navigation radars

In service with more than 30 navies and coast guard agencies around the world, the Hensoldt UK Mk 11 SharpEye X-band and S-Band suite is a fully coherent Pulse Doppler radar for navigation and situational awareness. Here it is pictured installed on board the first-of-class Musherib OPV of the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces © Fincantieri.

safely. With a 220 kg antenna group, the X-band radar with a fully solid state coherent 200 W peak power transceiver operates at 11 to 22 rotation per minute (rpm) in surveillance mode and 30 rpm during helicopter landing operations.

Hensoldt SharpEye family

Developed by Kelvin Hughes, which in 2019 became Hensoldt UK, a world leader in the development, manufacture and supply of maritime navigation and surveillance radars, the company’s core technology is the SharpEye, a radar transceiver launched in 2006, which brought military grade target detection at an affordable price to warships and offshore patrol vessels. With more than 30 navies and coast guard agencies around the world that are benefiting from this solution, the Mk 11 SharpEye X-band and S-Band suite is a fully coherent Pulse Doppler radar for navigation and situational awareness in all weather conditions and high sea states. The SharpEye X-band transmitter (with a peak power up to 300 W while the S-band reaches 200 W compared to typical 25 kW to 30 kW of previous generation systems based on magnetron) has been the first in its class to employ GaN (Gallium Nitride) power transistors. Together with respectively 2.5 and 3.9 meters antennas, the X- and S-band SharpEye transceivers are located up mast (or down mast as option), housed in a carbon composite turning unit and bringing additional benefits such as ease of installation and high reliability. The use of a direct drive motor system rather than the traditional antenna rotator gearbox also reduces maintenance. The significant benefits of GaN transistors have been harnessed by SharpEye to directly improve the performance of the radar, enabling the visualization of land, air and seaborne targets with reduced RCS. SharpEye technology exploits the Doppler effect to determine target radial velocities. This is achieved by processing received echoes into velocity bands, enabling

The Helsoldt UK SharpEye navigation radar has been the first in its class to employ GaN (Gallium Nitride) power transistor technology. © Hensoldt UK.

Hensoldt UK offers the Mk 5 SharpEye, aimed at Inshore Patrol Vessels (IPVs), coast guard or marine patrol vessels with a displacement of less than 150 tonnes. © Hensoldt UK. The SharpEye radar has been contracted by the French Navy in a version where it is provided in a combined antenna package with the same company’s MSSR 2000 IFF system. © Hensoldt UK.

the separation of genuine targets from clutter. Extracting the motion of targets by measuring the phase of the received echo relative to the phase of the transmission enables the radial velocity to be determined. This provides enhanced detection performance, enabling the acquisition of smaller targets such as rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) and submarine periscopes at greater ranges in clutter, i.e. targets with a 0.5 m2 RCS at several nautical miles in rough sea states and clutter conditions. Range discrimination is maintained over all radar range scales and is equivalent to that obtained in the short pulse in a magnetron radar. The low peak power reduces the probability of intercept while the solid state electronics, minimum moving components and graceful degradation provide up to 150,000 hours MTBF (Mean-Time Between Failures). The SharpEye naval radars can be supplied with an integrated agile tracker, delivering reliable target tracking performance against fast, highly maneuverable surface and air targets. SharpEye’s innovative display and tactical functionality utilizes enhanced target detection, twin plan position indicator and an intuitive Human Machine Interface (HMI) all compliant with latest IMO radar performance standards.

The system has been contracted by the French Navy in a version where the SharpEye X-band surveillance radar is provided in a combined antenna package with the same company’s MSSR 2000 IFF system. The navigation/IFF suite will equip French Navy POM (Patrouilleur d’Outre-Mer) six OPV platforms being built by Socarenam for French overseas territories patrol. POM vessels will operate their own UAVs and this radar/IFF combination will contribute to safe UAV operations.

The company also offers the Mk 5 SharpEye which is aimed at Inshore Patrol Vessels (IPVs), coast guard or marine patrol vessels with a displacement of less than 150 tonnes. Internationally contracted since its unveiling, the Mk 5 SharpEye is an extremely reliable, high performance X-band Doppler radar ideally suited for marine navigation, collision avoidance and situational awareness. Presented for the first time in 2019 during the DSEI exhibition, the system marries the already available Mk 5 radar with the Kelvin Hughes maintenance free SharpEye transceiver, which replaces the old magnetron system. The result is a lighter, more affordable solution that still ensures most of the capability of the larger SharpEye version in addition to an open architecture interface to provide easy integration and operation from 24 V DC supply. In order to ensure a limited footprint, the Mk 5 uses smaller antennas, either 1.4 or 1.9 meters, but still delivers about 80–85% of the capability of the larger Mk 11 radar. It weighs just 47 kg (with the 1.9 meters antenna) and features a lower power (80 W nominal) transmitter, providing an instrumented range of 45 km with target detection and range discrimination maintained over the full instrumented range.

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine VisionMaster

Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine strengthened its portfolio of military navigation solutions with the release of Additional Military Layers (AML) for its VisionMaster series of radars and Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). The VisionMaster FT line has been developed by Sperry Marine to replace the BridgeMaster product line. One notable feature is the proprietary clutter-suppression capacity known as ClearVision. This sophisticated automatic clutter-suppression technology makes it easier for watchstanders to identify small weak targets in the presence of sea or rain clutter, without manually adjusting gain or clutter controls. The AMLs have been developed to allow defence and naval users to take advantage of Sperry’s commercial radar systems on demanding military assignments aboard small and large vessels. The latest enhancements support the display of AMLs created to support both command and control and provide digital navigation systems that ensure the best situational awareness available for marine operations. The VisionMaster series of radars and ECDIS has been developed

Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine strengthened its portfolio of military navigation solutions with the release of Additional Military Layers for its VisionMaster series of radars which was developed to replace the BridgeMaster product line. Here it is depicted on the first-of-class Armidale patrol boat equipped. © Australian DoD.

The VisionMaster product series has been developed using the latest technologies to keep costs under control, but still with a choice of configurations and options needed for any type, size and class of vessel. © Sperry.

The Raytheon Anschütz Naval Radar NX application software will be integrated with the Terma Scanter 6002 radars and tailor-made consoles as part of the modernization programme for the Royal Australian Navy’s ANZAC frigates. © Australian DoD.

using the latest technology to keep costs under control, but still with a choice of configurations and options needed for any type, size and class of vessel. The VisionMaster Radar and ECDIS include a number of enhancements designed for naval operations. Among these features is the “Red First Strike” functionality that provides an immediate indication of fast moving targets, such as fixed and rotary wing aircraft and fast attack craft, by highlighting them in red. A Target Intercept feature allows the operator to plan and execute intercept maneuvers between one vessel and another including from “ownship” or from one tracked target or AIS target to another. This improves the operator’s reaction time by simplifying the identification of any potential threat. Linking the requirements of tactical operations with higher specification equipment can provide an increased level of navigational performance and improve the human-machine interface, according to Sperry.

Raytheon Anschütz NautoScan NX

A leading navigation company in both civil and military markets, Raytheon Anschütz offers the NautoScan NX network radar transceivers which distribute radar raw video via Ethernet to an “unlimited” number of workstations on the bridge (depending on the network setup). In a single radar system the new transceivers distribute the raw radar video via local area network to the Small Marine Computer (SMC), which is the standard for all workstations. At the same time, the NautoPlex data manager collects data from all serial attached sensors and distributes them to the SMC. In radar systems with two or more workstations, a second NautoPlex, a second switch and a respective number of SMCs are added to the system. The suite includes X-band (25 kW with 1.8 and 2.4 meters antennas) and S-band (30 kW with a 3.6 meters antenna) radars. The new pedestal and transceivers are built with state-of-the-art technology. Newly developed electronic and mechanical components with reduced complexity provide reliable and future-proof operation with a significantly increased MTBF. Magnetron lifetime is optimized through a new “sleep mode” that can be activated when the radar is in standby. According to the company, one of the major benefits of digital raw data distribution is to provide flexibility for system design, inter-switching and functional upgrades. In this networked environment, a transceiver can be controlled from any workstation, while maintaining operational integrity with the master/slave concept.

The US Navy M80 Stiletto high-speed craft has been testing the Terma Scanter 2602 navigation radar, an X-band, 2D, fully coherent pulse compression radar, based on solid state transmitter technology with digital software-defined functionality. © US Navy.

Belgium Naval & Robotics selected Terma as the supplier of the Scanter 6000 radar for the Belgian and Royal Netherlands Navies’ new MCMV platforms. This new sensor will give superior capabilities to the ships in terms of targets detection and tracking. © Belgium Naval & Robotics.

Terma Scanter 2602 and 6002

The Danish Terma company has more than seventy years of surveillance and mission systems experience and over 3,000 radars in service worldwide with navies, coast guards, and other high-demanding authorities on ships and ashore, including vessel traffic services, coastal surveillance and surface movement radar applications. Terma has accumulated a deep and thorough know-how about radar sensor technology with the Scanter family of X-band navigation, surface search and shortmedium range air and surveillance radars, comprising advanced signal processing and high-performance antennas, specifically tailored for small target detection in rough weather

conditions. The Scanter naval radar family comes in three basic versions adapted for specific purposes and in different price ranges, pending operational capability, of which the smaller Scanter 2602 and mid-range 6002 are being analyzed here.

The Scanter 2602 system is an X-band, 2D, fully coherent pulse compression radar, based on solid state transmitter technology with digital software-defined functionality. The outdoor transceiver unit, including all the RF-signals and processing, is a ruggedized design for upmast installation to minimize waveguide loss between antenna and transceiver. With an 80 W peak (equivalent to 25 kW magnetron) power, it weighs only 26 kg and can be placed close to the antenna with no requirement for an equipment room. All interfaces, processing and tracking are embedded in the up-mast unit and IMO radar navigation requirements can be met with a 2.1 meters Terma 7 Compact antenna. With larger antennas, increased small target detectability is achievable. The Scanter 2602 meets the small boat requirements for professional naval applications, where quality and durability are significant. It is compatible with Terma standard antenna programme and interface protocols. The transceiver configuration is obtained by pre-defined profiles, including all parameters needed to set up the radar. Profiles are optimized for different applications, varying weather conditions, or specific operational demands. The communication interface to the transceiver is established via a standard IP network (LAN or WAN), which provides network radar video, plots, tracks, control, etc. The Scanter 2602 relies on standard IP network to ensure effortless integration with existing and third-party systems using standard Terma protocols.

In 2009, Terma launched its Scanter 6002 radar, a fully coherent software-driven X-band system intended to meet emerging market needs for improved navigation support and situational awareness. With a maximum instrumented range of around 175 km, the Scanter 6002 meets multiple surveillance needs, notably navigation (compliant to IMO standards), surface surveillance, search and rescue, helicopter control, monitoring low airspace, and short range situational awareness (to support the ship’s force protection posture). The advanced digital signal processing combined with antenna characteristics (including high gain and narrow beam) delivers unparalleled spatial resolution, according to Terma. The built-in Embedded Tracker takes advantage of automatic clutter estimation (Terma patent), an Interacting Multiple Models (IMM) track estimation, and Multi-Hypothesis Tracking (MHT) to provide a high quality situational awareness picture. The Scanter 6002 is offered with both compact and high-gain antennas (ranging from 1.5 to 6 meters in span). The update rate varies from 6 to 60 rpm. The radar relies on gallium arsenide solid state technology to boost performances and reduce maintenance requirements. Line replaceable units are used throughout the family of sensors, ensuring long time sustainment and low life cycle costs. The Scanter 6002 radar is fully integrated with various renowned marine navigation display applications, providing enhanced support for safe navigation and collision avoidance beyond the capability of standard navigation radar systems. The Scanter 6002 is IMO certified, the system configuration meeting the latest IMO performance standards. It provides improved small target detection and automatic environmental adaptation for enhanced performances in all weather conditions. While monitoring the near airspace around the vessel, it is capable to detect and track helicopters, propeller and jet aircraft out to 18-28 km and up to 1,800 meters altitude providing low airspace monitoring and surveillance.

Ultra Electronics NGSSR

In April 2019, the US Naval Sea System Command awarded to Ultra Electronics Ocean Systems a contract for the development and production of the US Navy’s Next Generation Surface Search Radar (NGSSR) AN/SPS73(V)18 as a further evolution of the current AN/SPS-73(V)12 system. The primary objective of this programme, according to NAVSEA, is to develop a replacement for legacy US Navy shipboard surface search radar systems due

The Arleigh Burke class of destroyers, here the Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), will be one of the main recipients of the Next Generation Surface Search Radar (NGSSR) AN/SPS-73(V)18, developed as a replacement for legacy US Navy shipboard surface search radar systems due to current military threats and obsolescence issues. © Huntington Ingalls Industries.

to current military threats and obsolescence issues. The new NGSSR system will replace all variants of the current AN/SPS-67, AN/SPS73, BridgeMaster E series, and commercial ofthe-shelf radar systems. According to Ultra, the NGSSR leverages existing, fielded technologies developed for the AN/SPS-74 Periscope Detection Radar and the AN/BPS-17 Submarine Navigation Radar. These technologies applied to the NGSSR upgrade fulfill the need for improved sustainability through upgraded/ modifiable technology and a high system operational availability, offering ship defence against current military threats for surface and limited low altitude air targets, while also addressing risks inherent in operating in littoral waters and vulnerabilities such as submarine attacks. The NGSSR uses the latest digital technology and incorporates a software-based architecture at its core. NGSSR will have a suite of algorithms that extend, enhance, and optimize its performances by exploiting the system’s software-defined architecture. This can also implement functionality never considered before for such relatively simple rotating radar, extending the radar’s range and navigation functions in bad weather, resisting enemy electronic warfare attempts to jam it, detecting UAVs, periscopes, floating debris, and floating mines, and improving collision avoidance in crowded waterways. The NGSSR funding will be utilized for engineering changes to the AN/ SPS-73(V)12 radar, which will improve surface combatant’s ability to engage fast attack craft/ fast in shore attack craft (FAC/FIAC) tracking and periscope detection and discrimination, as well as address cybersecurity shortfalls and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) obsolescence of legacy AN/SPS-73 systems. NGSSR production plans have been accelerated as a result of the October 2017 US Navy Commander Fleet Forces Comprehensive Review, which followed the McCain and Fitzgerald destroyers collisions with commercial vessels, with the first qualification unit having begun land-test in February 2021.

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