Germany Orders New AESA Battlefield Radars

BUR radar concept(click to view full) EADS will equip the German Armed Forces with a new kind of Active Electronically-Scanning Array (AESA) ground surveillance radar for reliably detecting movements both on the ground, and at low altitudes in the air. The Bodenuberwachungsradar (lit. “Ground Overwatch Radar”) is “specially designed for recognizing asymmetric threats,” and will be mounted on KMW’s Dingo 2 vehicles. The most recent development involves the handover of 2 system demonstrators. BUR for Battlefield Surveillance BUR on Dingo-2(click to view full) BUR is intended to close the gap in capabilities of the German Armed Forces in the area of ground surveillance, and will serve from 2012-2037 at least. After If the first 2 system demonstrators achieve satisfactory performance, series production and delivery of 78 more BUR systems is planned as of 2012. AESA radars have performance, versatility, and reliability advantages over conventional scanning arrays. EADS has some experience with this technology via its TerraSAR space radars, its work upgrading Germany’s F124 Sachsen Class frigates, and its participation in the NATO AGS aerial reconnaissance system and the MEADS program to build the Patriot system’s air-defense successor. In this case, AESA’s real-time electronic beam scanning allows the BUR to perform […]