Australia will deploy ten advanced airport surveillance radars to enhance security at nine military and civil airfields in the country.
The Airport Surveillance Radar – Next Generation (ASR-NG) is being supplied by Airbus Defence and Space under two contracts worth €130m.
The project ‘AIR 5431 Phase 2 – fixed defence air traffic control surveillance sensors’, being undertaken by Australia’s new Capability, Acquisition and Sustainment Group, is aimed at providing improved inputs into the Australian National Air Traffic Management Surveillance and enhancing air battle management capabilities.
The primary radar in ASR-NG uses an advanced signal processing technology for medium and long-range air traffic surveillance.
The secondary radar MSSR 2000 I helps in the identification of over 2,000 transponder-equipped aircraft at a time.
“ASR-NG provides outstanding performance for wide-area surveillance around airbases as well as safe guidance of individual aircraft during take-off and landing.”
According to Airbus, the technology recognises the highly encrypted identification ‘Mode 5’ along with the civil air traffic control ‘Mode S’ and ‘ADS-B’, thereby assisting in improving aircraft identification security and safety.
The system increases primary radar’s range to 220km, and is resistant to wind farm effects. Its detection capabilities allow it to track even slow flying or hovering helicopters above heavy clutter areas.
Airbus Defence and Space electronics business line head Thomas Müller said: “ASR-NG provides outstanding performance for wide-area surveillance around airbases as well as safe guidance of individual aircraft during take-off and landing.”
Australia will receive nine complete and one training system until the end of 2020.
Germany, France, US, UK, Bulgaria and the Philippines are also using the systems for civil and military air traffic control.