General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), tactical reconnaissance radars, and electro-optic surveillance systems, has announced its successful participation in a US Air Force exercise designed to demonstrate the capability of an aerostat equipped with maritime radar and an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor to provide situational awareness for littoral environments.

“Successful integration and operation of the Lynx multi-mode radar on an aerostat, which presented many navigation system challenges, is a testament to the radar’s versatility,” said Linden Blue, President, Reconnaissance Systems Group, GA-ASI. “The exercise validated the robustness of the Lynx maritime wide area search [MWAS] mode and demonstrated that this capability is ready to transition to the military and border patrol users on various types of manned and unmanned aircraft.”

Capable of a 30-degree per second scan rate with algorithms optimised for detecting small vessels, including self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) vessels, the Lynx radar’s MWAS mode has also been demonstrated successfully on a King Air aircraft and a surrogate Predator B UAS. The MWAS mode, along with a three-fold increase in the ground moving target indicator (GMTI) area coverage rate and a new SAR-aided alignment mode, has been incorporated into Lynx radars deployed by US customers over the past year and is available now for airship/aerostat applications.