Norway orders new artillery location radars from Netherlands

Norway is to acquire five Thales Ground Master 200 Multi-Mission Compact radars (GM200 MM/C) under a government-to-government deal with the Netherlands.

Concluded on 25 May, the procurement will provide the Norwegian Armed Forces with a new mobile artillery location radar system suitable for national and international operations. The sales agreement, signed by the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (FMA) and the Netherlands Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), includes an option for three additional GM200 MM/C systems. The FMA said on its website on 25 May that the contract value is about EUR77 million (USD94 million), with deliveries scheduled for 2023–24.

Forming part of the Thales 4D dual-axis multibeam active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar family, the S-band GM200 MM/C is a palletised system designed for tactical mobility and rapid deployment/relocation. As well as battlefield air surveillance and support to very-short-range/short-range air-defence systems, the radar can be deployed for specific taskings such as artillery counter-battery and weapon locating, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) detection/classification, and counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) defence.

The GM200 MM/C combines a mechanically rotating antenna with a single-face AESA – using gallium nitride transmit/receive modules – able to generate beams simultaneously in both elevation and azimuth. AESA operation, allowing for rapid electronic beam steering and ‘forward' and ‘backward' scanning, means that the scan rate is independent of the physical antenna rotation rate.

The GM200 MM/C has previously been ordered for the Royal Netherlands Army, which designates it as the Multi Mission Radar (MMR), for surveillance, air defence, C-RAM, and UAV detection applications. The service will receive nine MMR systems in 2022–24.

In a statement, the DMO said, “