Thales Begins Production of Supersonic Missile-Tracking Radar
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 10/05/2018
Sea Fire radar array at the integration facility in Limours, France © Thales
Thales announced it had begun production of the Sea Fire digital radar, a naval sensor designed to track new weapons including supersonic missiles.
“Thales is pleased to announce that the first Sea Fire radar for the French Navy’s FTI future medium-size frigates program is now in production,” the company said in a May 9 statement. “It is tailored to evolving requirements and the new threats faced by the French Navy, particularly supersonic missiles.”
The company started building the four-panel phased array antenna after three years of research into radar technology and architecture, backed by the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office. The radar draws on work on big data and cybersecurity, and future software development will be written into the system to boost performance and reliability over the life of the system.
According to Thales, the Sea Fire features air surveillance coverage of up to 500 km and surface surveillance coverage of 80 km. It can track more than 800 air and surface targets, and provides “enhanced surveillance capability on all targets: slow moving & very low RCS, or supersonic highly maneuvering stealth targets.”
[Source: C4ISRNET]
Thales announced it had begun production of the Sea Fire digital radar, a naval sensor designed to track new weapons including supersonic missiles.
“Thales is pleased to announce that the first Sea Fire radar for the French Navy’s FTI future medium-size frigates program is now in production,” the company said in a May 9 statement. “It is tailored to evolving requirements and the new threats faced by the French Navy, particularly supersonic missiles.”
The company started building the four-panel phased array antenna after three years of research into radar technology and architecture, backed by the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office. The radar draws on work on big data and cybersecurity, and future software development will be written into the system to boost performance and reliability over the life of the system.
According to Thales, the Sea Fire features air surveillance coverage of up to 500 km and surface surveillance coverage of 80 km. It can track more than 800 air and surface targets, and provides “enhanced surveillance capability on all targets: slow moving & very low RCS, or supersonic highly maneuvering stealth targets.”
[Source: C4ISRNET]
