In 2005, BAE Systems was awarded a $2 million contract to provide a Continuous Wave (CW) Doppler radar to the UK Aberporth Test and Evaluation Range, operated by QinetiQ on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence.
BAE Systems has now developed the CW Doppler system, which incorporates state-of-the-art technology, and a system architecture that uses commercial components to provide improvements in operation, simplifying logistics support and minimizing life-cycle costs.
BAE Systems commissioned Chelton (at that time still known as European Antennas) to develop a series of high specification, flat panel antennas as part of the receive and transmit antenna system for the CW Doppler Radar system. Each half of the system contains sixteen directional antennas, model FPA29-105V/1246, each with 28dBi gain.
The system has been delivered and installation completed for their client. Nigel Jones of QinetiQ iX, MOD Aberporth, reports that "QinetiQ are extremely pleased with the new CW Doppler radar system that BAE Systems have delivered and believe that the DRX-41320 offers the QinetiQ Land Range end users a significantly enhanced tracking radar system for both artillery type gunnery trials and also in other more general TSPI tracking applications.
“The quality of the delivered product in conjunction with the level of spares, documentation and training delivered by the contractor should enable QinetiQ to offer a more flexible tracking system on their Ranges and elsewhere in support of customer tracking trials. The system utilisation of this extended service is expected to be far higher than that of the previous system."
BAE Systems is the premier global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With 96,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceed £15 billion (US $20 billion).
