A specialist radar from Thales has played a key role in the interception of a ballistic missile. The radar managed to detect the missile outside the atmosphere.
In the case of a Terrier Oriole ballistic missile, which makes its journey partly in space, the SMART-L radar detected and tracked the missile in question outside the atmosphere. This unique achievement was the highlight of Formidable Shield 2017, a naval air and missile defence exercise organised by the US Sixth Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Hebrides.
Royal Navy Admiral Rob Kramer responded enthusiastically on Twitter: 'Technical masterpiece and top innovation from #Thales and the #Kingdom Navy. This helps us stay safer in turbulent times.'
Special technology
On 15 October, a ballistic missile was launched from the Hebrides. The missile reached an altitude of 300 km and a speed of 3 km per second. The SMART-L radar aboard the Zr. Ms De Ruyter detected and tracked the ballistic missile and made the real-time data available to a US Navy Aegis-class ship via the NATO communications network. The quality of the data was high enough to be used for a so-called Launch on Remote.
The SMART-L radar on the Zr. Ms De Ruyter had been specially modified for this exercise. Thus, Thales had equipped the system with the latest technology specially developed for defence against ballistic missiles. This technology is being used in the six new SMART-L Multi Mission systems that Thales is currently building and testing. Four of these systems are destined for the Royal Navy's LCF frigates and two will be installed by the Royal Air Force on towers for monitoring Dutch airspace.
Security
Gerben Edelijn, CEO of Thales in the Netherlands: 'This exercise demonstrates that Thales has built a radar capable of detecting a ballistic missile and generating target information of a high enough quality to enable the elimination of such a missile. This radar is an essential tool for securing a country's population and valuable infrastructure.'
Thales has been working for years on radar technology to detect ballistic missiles. Back in 2006, for instance, the Americans were quite impressed during one of the first tests with the radar systems, in Hawaii. 'They claimed we were six years ahead of them by then,' a Thales product manager said in an article just last year. The system has since undergone considerable further development, which means that Thales is now among the world's best when it comes to this type of system. 'Thales' naval radar, unlike that of the US Navy, scans both the airspace and a whole lot of space above it in 360 degrees.' Thales has a patent on a technology that enables naval radars to pick up even the smallest signals from space, and the first radar is scheduled to start operating on a Dutch naval ship in 2018.
The specifications
SMART-L Multi Mission is a fully digitally controlled Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The high-end techniques employed result in a radar with an unrivalled range of 2,000 km. Within this huge range, the system detects a wide range of targets: air-breathing objects, stealth objects and ballistic missiles. AESA technology enables the use of the state-of-the-art Dual Axis Multi-beam, active tracking and staring mode. The programmable radar is characterised by complete flexibility: additional capabilities can be added throughout its lifetime, depending on user needs. This makes the radar future-proof. Currently, Thales has contracts to develop, build and install four SMART-L MM / N systems for the Royal Navy and two SMART-L MM / F radars for the Royal Air Force. More military organisations around the world have expressed interest in the SMART-L MM. This long-range radar has already detected satellites from the Thales building in Hengelo and tracked their orbit up to 2000 km.
By: Kelly Bakker
Source: Thales Netherlands
