Terma Demonstrates Small Target Detection Capability Aboard Stiletto – Nov 06, 2013– Norfolk, USA (Techreleased) – Terma, a global supplier of radar, command and control (C2), and self-protection systems for ships and aircraft, demonstrated the effectiveness of its SCANTER 6000 X-band Naval Surveillance Radar in detecting small targets during formal testing on the Stiletto, the U.S. Department of Defense’s experimental craft operated by Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock (NSWCCD), Combatant Craft Division.
The SCANTER 6000 (SC6000) was very successful in detecting and tracking a high-speed surface contact, i.e., 7M RHIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat) under various maneuvering scenarios. The same success was exhibited for simultaneous shipping and navigation, and overtaking and passing of vessels under various test conditions. The Radar was using a 12’ fan beam antenna with upgraded processor and software during the test sessions.
Operating under a Limited Purpose Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (LP-CRADA) with NSWCCD, Terma conducted the formal testing September 16-18 in the southern section of the Chesapeake Bay, in and around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
Challenging Scenarios
Jim Moore, Director of Radar Systems for Terma said, “The main purpose of the testing was to demonstrate the capability to reliably and consistently detect and track extremely small surface contacts. We tested this with the targets by themselves and in a more challenging scenario of placing them in close proximity to a large contact. In this case we located them within 50 m of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.”
The targets used for the testing were a radar reflector (radar cross section (RCS) of .1m2 for X-band) to simulate person in the water, a 3M RHIB (RCS of .4439m2) to simulate a real world capsized boat, and a periscope-like object (RCS of .5m2) protruding 3-4 feet out of the water.
“All in all, we were very pleased with the results” Moore said. “We were able to gather data useful to the continued refinement of the tracker and also document the outstanding performance of the SCANTER 6002 radar as tactical surveillance radar in a naval shipboard environment.”
The SCANTER 6000
SC6000 uses solid state power amplifiers for signal generation and a range of advanced signal processing techniques – such as pulse compression, Doppler or MTI processing, time and frequency diversity – that are available only to fully coherent radars. Designed specifically to detect and track small surface targets from very close range and out to the radar horizon, even in severe weather conditions such as rain, fog, dust, and snow, the SC6000 combines those solid state features with the digital processing typically applied to modern radars resulting in a superior quality radar picture for navigation and overall situational awareness.
