Plextek has unveiled an electronically scanned radar small enough to be man-portable and suitable for area protection or airfield ground movement monitoring.
During the show, the prototype BlightER was monitoring a motorway near the UK electronics consultancy's Cambridge base, with data sent via the internet to Plextek's stand. The radar measures 450x300x40mm (17x12x1.6in), weighs 10kg (22lb) and has a 10km (5nm) range.
Plextek technical director Ian Murphy says the unit is a continuous-wave system requiring low power and making it difficult to detect. Several would be networked to provide area protection, he adds.
BlightER has 32 Plextek-developed and-financed transmit-receive modules, says Murphy. The concept was proposed at June's Paris air show and is "to show Plextek's capability rather than be a solution although it could be customised for niche applications", he says.
The self-contained antenna and processing unit is wireless networking-enabled so data can be transmitted to a laptop or hand-held computer without cables.
BlightER is a Doppler system, and could be the basis of an unmanned air vehicle synthetic aperture radar, says Murphy.
Source: Flight International
