About Us
Blighter Surveillance Systems (‘Blighter’) is a British company based near Cambridge in the East of England. Cambridge is Europe’s largest technology cluster and having such a prime location gives us direct access to a wide and talented pool of staff.
At Blighter, we design, manufacture and support a range of unique, patented, solid state ground-based radar systems. Our radars can detect distant moving objects, day and night, in all weather conditions.
The information on this ‘About Us’ page is also available as downloadable PDF fact sheet: Blighter Company Overview fact sheet
Blighter Surveillance Systems Overview
• Design, manufacture & support of a range of solid-state ground-based radars
• Award winning technology
• Deployed with UK MoD, US DoD, NATO & Five Eyes
• Land, Sea & Air domain radars
• Continuous, persistent, 24/7 wide-area surveillance with zero moving parts
• Engineering-focused company
• Easy to learn products which have a low overall training burden
• Augmented reality headsets for remote support of overseas customers
Markets, Awards & Reference Customers
Blighter’s innovative e-scan radars address a wide range of markets in the Defence and Security sectors, and, to date, we have sold over 600 radars to more than 35 countries around the world. For example, over 100 units are actively deployed along one of the world’s most dangerous border between North and South Korea.
The UK MoD deployed 50 radar units to protect the British forward-operating bases in Afghanistan, helping the Blighter engineering team to win the prestigious Queen’s Award for Innovation.
Our radars are deployed at Heathrow Airport to monitor and detect intrusions of the airport’s central restricted zone. The on-going success of this system has led to our radars being deployed at many airports, including three out of four of the UK’s largest airports.
Flexible & Innovative Products
Product modularity and flexibility allow the radars to be deployed on towers and vehicles, and as dismounted systems on tripods. Originally launched in 2015, our A400 series radars have been deployed on US M-ATV and Stryker vehicles, and went on to become the key cueing sensor in the US DoD deployed AUDS counter-UAS system. In 2020, we launched the new A800 3D multi-mode drone detection radar, offering high-end, simultaneous multi-mode functionality at an accessible price point. Our product portfolio now covers the three domains of land, sea and air with the B400, C400, A400 and A800 family of ground-based radars.
Features & Benefits
Blighter radars offer continuous, persistent, 24/7 wide-area surveillance with zero moving parts and ultra-high reliability. System cost of ownership is extremely low, with proven cost-saving benefits and lower through-life costs compared with traditional mechanically-scanning radars. Our radars are also easy to learn and have a low overall training burden, making them simple to install and deploy.
Blighter Surveillance Systems – An Engineering-Focused Company
At Blighter, we take great pride in our engineering excellence. We have a large, well-equipped, multi-disciplinary team, capable of designing our advanced products. This includes Electronic Design, Mechanical Design and the development of embedded firmware and Windows-based software applications.
We are proud of our high UK social value. Blighter radars are designed by our engineering team here in the UK, and assembled and tested by UK-based product assembly partners.
Within the hardware design team, we develop and specify the full spectrum of technologies required to implement a modern radar. From the design of X- and Ku-band RF modules and antennas, to the design of supporting DSP computation platforms.
To create compact, lightweight and power-efficient radars, it is essential that our analogue and digital engineers have a close working relationship with an in-house mechanical design engineer, allowing design-for-manufacture to be optimised. The software engineering team is responsible for the development of real-time embedded firmware, including full built-in test, as well as the development of Windows-based command & control software packages, such as the BlighterView HMI.
BlighterCare Support Packages
BlighterCare Support Packages provide a range of support services that give access to our team of engineering support domain experts, covering Professional Services, Technical Support, and Repair & Warranty Services.
Pre-sales services include on-site demos, site surveys and requirements capture, while post-sales services embrace factory-acceptance testing, installation support, commissioning, and site-acceptance testing.
Our Support Department uses augmented reality headsets for remote support of overseas customers, whereby step-by-step guidance for system installation, commissioning and debugging can be conducted remotely by a Blighter support engineer.
We also offer a full training capability, delivered either at Blighter’s site, remotely via Microsoft Teams or at a customer’s site.
Repairs are carried out in-house by highly skilled technicians who can use diagnostic tests to identify faults and repair systems to component level.
Blighter Surveillance Systems Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management
Blighter’s Operations Department is responsible for managing supply-chain and manufacturing. Our product assembly partner is responsible for kitting, building and testing our radar units. Their quality management system complies with EN 9100:2018, AS9100D, JISQ 9100:2016 and ISO 9001:2015.
Blighter’s radar units are fully RF and temperature tested from -35 to +65°C, while every radar is vibration tested to MIL-STD-810F.
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