Kelvin Hughes’s solid-state SharpEye radar has validated its enhanced small target detection capability during a recent US Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) demonstration in Virginia, US.
The US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Stiletto maritime demonstration programme’s capability demonstration is aimed at provide immediate feedback on systems following completion of its testing in a realistic military maritime environment.
During the Capability Demonstration 1, the radar technology validated its capability onboard the US Navy’s technology demonstrator Stiletto, while providing realistic military maritime environment for its littoral warfare application to NECC sailors.
The SharpEye radar has been integrated with Kelvin Hughes Naval MantaDigital radar display software, which has been designed to allow continuous detection and target tracking for situational awareness.
Through SharpEye, the user-friendly interface provided chart overlays, high fidelity-detection and high-resolution of situational awareness for operators while operating at high-speed.
Following completion of demonstration, an immediate feedback was provided to Kelvin Hughes from experienced operators to develop technologies even further for future naval applications.
Kelvin Hughes vice-president Adrian Pilbeam said the SharpEye radars have been designed to provide enhanced situational awareness capability for operators.
Equipped in upmast antenna turning unit, the SharpEye sensor operates in X-band frequency and features patented pulse sequence and Doppler processing to support detection of small targets even in heavy rain and high-sea states.
"Apart from the obvious maritime security applications, this performance benefit is also being used in many other areas for detection of small targets such as VTS and coastal surveillance applications, land surveillance and infrastructure security," Pilbeam said.
SharpEye radar, available both I-band (X-band) and E/F-band (S-band) technology, is used by navies, military, vessel traffic services, border, coastal surveillance and security agencies, and critical infrastructure operators.
The fully coherent radar transceiver can provide situational awareness for users in all weather conditions, at sea or on land, in high-sea states and ground clutter, day or night.
Image: The US Navy’s Stiletto ship undergoing testing in littoral combat warfare environment. Photo: courtesy of US Navy, by photographer’s mate airman Damien Horvath (Released).
