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17 Aug 17. RADA Gets $8m US Military Counter-UAS Contract. RADA Electronic Industries Ltd. has announced it had received a strategic first order for dozens of Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars (MHR) from the US Military. Totalling over $8m, this order will be delivered during 2017. The radars will be used by a key US military force, providing it with air surveillance with an emphasis on counter-UAS with the most advanced on-the-move capabilities. The radars are expected to be fielded for operational use soon after delivery.
Dov Sella, RADA’s CEO, commented, “We are proud to be awarded with this order by the US Military, following long, demanding and detailed trials, in which our systems had proven superior in the increasingly important fields of air surveillance and counter-UAS warfare.”
Mr. Sella continued, “While this initial win has potential for additional orders with this particular force, we also see further potential with other US military forces and world leading defense forces, which are in need of tactical, on-the-move surveillance and protection solutions for the manoeuvre forces.”
About RADA’s Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars
RADA’s Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars (MHR) are S-band, software-defined, pulse-Doppler, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars. The radars introduce sophisticated beam forming capabilities and advanced signal processing, which can provide for various missions on each radar platform and demonstrate an unprecedented performance-to-price ratio. The radars are compact and mobile, enabling multiple-missions on each radar, and work while on-the-move. RADA has sold over 300 radar systems to-date, to various global defense customers. (Source: UAS VISION)
17 Aug 17. US naval engineers restore AMPS as test asset for PDD evaluation. Engineers from the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have restored an abandoned unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) autonomous mobile periscope system (AMPS) as a test asset to evaluate the capability of the navy’s periscope detection and discrimination (PDD) technology.
PDD is a radar interface that identifies the presence of elusive diesel-electric submarines by locating their periscope.
Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems requested an available, flexible asset to detect potential technical issues prior to testing the PDD with a submarine, thereby reducing the risk of programme delays caused by carrying out the tests later in the development cycle.
NRL AN/SPQ-9B radar technical direction agent Dave Cardiel and Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) Point Mugu test and evaluation manager Kurt Dulka subsequently travelled across the Pacific to investigate the AMPS, which matched their initial testing requirements.
The UUV was located at Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Keyport Detachment Pacific, Pearl Harbour.
Cardiel said: “AMPS had not been used for a few years and needed new batteries and some maintenance before we could see a demonstration.
“I saw the potential for reviving it and worked with Keyport to obtain cost estimates for a demonstration.
“I then worked with Kurt and John Cunnick from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) to entertain the idea of moving AMPS to California as a navy test asset.”
The AMPS UUV was originally designed in the late ’90s to offer realistic training for anti-submarine warfare watch-standers.
It was capable of conducting pre-programmed manoeuvres, either on the surface with an exposed mast or at a submerged depth just below the surface.
The research team has now received approval to use the vehicle for PDD testing with AN/SPY 3, AN/SPQ-9B, and next-generation surface-search radar programmes. The AMPS will be deployed either on the east or the west coast for radar testing purposes, without access to a torpedo r