Silentium Defence to provide passive radar to Australian Navy

Dr James Palmer, CEO of Silentium Defence, and Melissa Price, Australia's Minister for Defence Industry, with MAVERICK-M passive radar. (Silentium Defence)

Australia's Silentium Defence has secured a contract with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to test its MAVERICK passive radar across a range of maritime applications, company official told Janes .

Dr James Palmer, CEO of Silentium Defence, told Janes on 11 March that “this is a gated process to design, install, and evaluate” the MAVERICK passive radar systems in the maritime domain.

“It's part of a long-term strategic partnership that has already begun, aligned with our government's recognition of passive radar as a sovereign industrial capability priority (SICP),” he added.

“Passive radar can be used in line with most uses of active radar in early warning and surveillance,” Palmer said, adding that passive radar “is applicable to all classes of vessels”.

“We are just working through a trials programme to work out the most applicable application to each vessel,” he said.

Citing confidential nature of the contract, Palmer declined to comment on its financial value as well as about when naval vessels and other maritime applications equipped with the MAVERICK passive radar would be operational.

According to Silentium Defence, MAVERICK has potential to enhance RAN's situational awareness. “Our radars don't transmit like traditional radars, which means the fleet can maintain critical awareness of objects in their environment, without highlighting their position,” Palmer said in the press statement.

MAVERICK “addresses a key strategic challenge” for RAN and “enables critical, constant situational awareness of air, land, and sea, even in reduced or silent emission-controlled conditions”, he said.