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Thales launches radar for UAVs
Wednesday, 12 September, 2007
Thales UK (Stand 855) is launching a compact and lightweight radar system designed to be fitted in standard or electro-optic/ infrared unmanned air vehicle (UAV) payload bays.
Known as Coastmaster, the sensor has been designed to complement Thales’s existing airborne surveillance family for naval and maritime customers. Weighing only 30kg, it has been developed to meet the requirements of weightsensitive airborne platforms such as UAVs, helicopters and small manned aircraft.
With UAVs increasingly used in border protection and counter-piracy, Coastmaster’s design ensures low impact on air vehicle operation or endurance, and includes high-fidelity maritime and ground surveillance modes, including maritime reconnaissance and moving target indicator, SAR, ISAR and GMTI.
The ability to combine these capabilities into a low-cost, robust, singleunit sensor system is a key step forward in radar and UAV evolution, according to Richard Deakin, managing director of Thales UK’s aerospace business. “We have worked closely with our customers to ensure we have developed the right solution to the wide array of applications, in effect bringing next-generation radar to UAVs for the first time,” he said.