Cassidian, the defence and security division of EADS, has proved the capabilities of its newly-developed SPEXER 1000 security radar in a series of large-scale field trials, employing realistic scenarios.
The company announced that in the course of demanding tests conducted in Africa and South-East Asia the radar demonstrated exceptional detection capabilities under the toughest conditions – coastal situations, difficult terrain and poor weather. SPEXER 1000 thus proved its suitability as a cost-effective solution for stationary or mobile intelligence and surveillance protecting critical infrastructure.
Elmar Compans, head of the sensors and electronic warfare unit at Cassidian, said: “SPEXER 1000 gives surveillance systems for at-risk industrial installations, ports or other wide-area facilities an extremely high-precision all-weather capability that is unachievable with conventional systems and cameras.”
In the course of the successful series of tests the radar triumphantly accomplished tasks such as guidance of an entire fleet of helicopters and early detection of small speedboats and inflatables in mobile configurations.
SPEXER 1000 is a security radar that is optimised for the surveillance of critical territory and infrastructure such as oil fields, power plants, harbours, airfields or military camps. It also serves as a “gap filler” radar for border surveillance in areas with limited lines of sight because of hilly terrain.
With a range of between 0.1 and 18 kilometres and an extremely high update rate it is able to detect suspicious movements on the ground, in the air or on the water at a very early stage. Thanks to its high doppler resolution, the radar is able to reliably locate difficult-to-detect, very small and slow-moving objects – such as unmanned aerial vehicles or individual people – with a very low false alarm rate.
This not only results in superior surveillance performance but also provides a highly precise situational picture. Its low weight and its ability to be put into operation within just a few minutes mean that the radar can be deployed as a mobile system on a tripod or a vehicle, for example to monitor various particularly vulnerable spots in a changing environment. SPEXER 1000 has been successfully tested by a European military customer, among others.
SPEXER 1000 is part of the SPEXER security radar family from Cassidian, which consists of various sensors, each optimised for specific applications in the fields of border, infrastructure, perimeter and coastal surveillance. A specific version for border surveillance, SPEXER 2000, is currently under production for a large-scale border surveillance programme in the Middle East. A military version has been developed for the German Army.
