Blighter Surveillance Systems, a British electronic-scanning (e-scan) radar and sensor solution provider, has introduced a coastal security radar to detect unwanted intruders such as smugglers, pirates, illegals and terrorists approaching a coastline by boat.
The Blighter C400 series is a modular, solid-state non-rotating e-scan advanced Doppler radar designed specifically for the detection of small, slow moving and uncooperative targets often undetectable by traditional coastal surveillance systems and maritime radars. For example, the radar can detect a small wooden boat, panga or dory with a radar cross-section (RCS) of 1m² at a range of up to 11km (6.8 miles). It does this day and night, in heavy rain, dense fog and even in the rough sea.
The Blighter C400 series radar is optimised for advanced Doppler signal processing, low power passive electronically scanned array (PESA) and frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) technologies. The radar also has a built-in static target detector, sea clutter filter with low false alarm rate, and a 'shadow boost' feature that gives the radar an extremely short minimum detection range (10 metres) to enable boats to be detected as they land, even when close to the radar.
The principal challenge for coastal security system integrators is detecting unwanted intruders using small and slow moving boats during poor environmental conditions. That's because smugglers, terrorists, pirates and illegals exploit the weather conditions to evade detection knowing that sensors are often compromised during heavy rains and at high sea states. However, they have designed the Blighter C400 coastal security radar to work in these conditions by developing techniques and algorithms for differentiating boats from waves and detecting very slow and static objects on the water surface, even in cluttered environments. Hence, they can detect a kayak, canoe, jet-ski, RIB or other small boat alongside larger ships even in a busy harbour or port.
This radar uses advanced Doppler signal processing to provide the ability to precisely examine the motion of waterborne objects with respect to waves or ripples on the water surface. Unlike traditional Doppler radars, the C400 series characterises non-moving targets using the static target detector so that moored boats, buoys and other structures remain visible on the radar screen.
The built-in sea clutter filter automatically adapts to changing sea states and wave conditions to remove the unwanted radar signal produced by waves using both velocity (speed) and amplitude (height) characteristics.
The Blighter C400 series radar can be used as part of a larger coastal security system incorporating day/night and fog penetrating electro-optical camera systems, AIS (automatic identification system), other boat transponder/tracking systems and CCTV. These elements can all be controlled through the BlighterView HMI command and control (C2) software platform.
The radar series is designed to protect seaports, harbours, as well as land-based coastal assets such as oil & gas facilities, desalination plants, nuclear power stations, palaces and other high value assets. The radar can also be used for river and estuary monitoring in situations where bulky coastal surveillance radars are unsuitable.
Blighter radars are already operational on water borders in Europe and Asia and to protect sea-facing royal palaces. The new C400 series has been demonstrated in numerous ports, harbours and coastlines around the world and has proven to be highly effective against small and uncooperative targets.
Blighter Surveillance Systems delivers an integrated multi-sensor package to systems integrators comprising the Blighter radars plus cameras, thermal imagers, trackers and software solutions. Its ITAR-free systems are used worldwide in commercial, government and defence markets in area and asset protection for national border security, homeland security, critical infrastructure protection such as oil & gas facilities, coastal surveillance, and in military applications.
Blighter radar solutions are used at Heathrow and other international airports, by the British Army for force protection, and in numerous asset protection and border security applications, including monitoring the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), a buffer zone which runs 250 km across the Korean peninsula and separates North and South Korea.
Key Specifications C400 Radar:
Radar type: E-scan Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Doppler Coastal Security Radar
Frequency band: Ku band
Spectrum occupancy:
- Wide-band (WB): 15.7 to 17.2 GHz
- Narrow-band (NB): 16.2 to 17.2 GHz
Scan type: fully electronic scanning in azimuth ('e-scan') using a Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA)
Transmitter power (nominal): 1 Watt (standard power transmitter version) or 4 Watt (high power transmitter version)
Multi-radar operation: supported and unlimited
Embedded software and firmware: field upgradeable via network connection
