Thales’s naval business completed the testing and demonstration of its Coastwatcher 10 radar recently at the U.S. Naval Air Station (NAS) in Patuxent River, Maryland. NAS Patuxent River is home to the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Headquarters and serves as a center for test, evaluation and systems acquisition relating to naval aviation.
The Thales Coastwatcher 10 was tested for the Naval Air Systems Command SURETRAK program office using U.S. Navy calibrated targets. The tests demonstrated Coastwatcher 10’s ability to detect and track very small targets (1m² radar cross section and 1 to 2 m above sea level) up to the radar horizon in both rough and calm sea states. The patented adaptive processing also performed successfully and reliably on multiple occasions despite conditions of sea clutter and poor weather.
“Thales is proud to have had the opportunity to demonstrate the reliability and detection capabilities of Coastwatcher 10 for NAVAIR,” said Allan Cameron, president and CEO of Thales USA. “We remain fully committed to demonstrating the value of Thales’s coastal surveillance solutions to the U.S. Navy as future opportunities emerge.”
Built to address emerging local and geopolitical threats like theft, smuggling, illegal immigration and terrorism, Thales’s Coastwatcher 10 is designed to provide users a customized level of surveillance and security. Coastwatcher 10 is designed to detect and track a variety of asymmetric surface threats and unidentified targets with very low signatures in a wide range of sea conditions.
The Thales Coastwatcher series of radars provide a high-performance, low-cost solution for maritime surveillance from shoreline to horizon. Coastwatcher 10 combines commercial, off-theshelf radar components with Thales’s radar processor that is specifically designed for detecting and tracking small, low-radar cross section targets.