Naval radar could help crew react quicker to attacks

The TRS-4D system, developed by European defence firm Cassidian, is able to make the three radar detections needed to confirm the presence of an enemy ship in a single antenna revolution, rather than having to wait for the transmitter to rotate twice more.

To do this, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) simultaneously transmits multiple radar beams, allowing the signal to be deflected back towards the suspected ship once the initial detection has been made, while the antenna continues to rotate.

‘Normally, if you have a rotation time of two seconds, this results in a track-establish time of six seconds — maybe eight seconds if you have a miss in there,’ Hansjörg Roschmann, Cassidian’s head of sales for detection, told The Engineer.

‘This can establish and confirm a track in one rotation just by looking back several times… in a time of less than one second.

‘If you have a threat approaching your ship, gaining six seconds of additional decision time is the difference between dead and alive.’