Blighter MultiWatch Delivers up to 300 sq km Persistent Wide Area Surveillance (2 March 2010)

Plextek, the Cambridge-based electronics and communications design consultancy today launched Blighter MultiWatch a persistent wide-area surveillance system using its successful patented Blighter radar that allows up to six radars to be networked together to monitor up to 300 sq km of land.

Blighter MultiWatch is ideal for camp security, border security and key asset protection. It is able to monitor large areas, including complex rocky or mountainous terrain, as well as flat or dune covered desert. The radars can be set up in a circular configuration to provide wide-area surveillance around a camp or site of critical infrastructure or they can also be used as a line of sensors to provide a ‘virtual fence’ at troublesome border spots or along a line of control. Once the threat has passed, the whole MultiWatch system can easily and quickly be dismantled and transported to another area.

Using a self-forming and self-healing wireless mesh network, the system is man-portable and can be set up from backpacks for rapid deployment. The radars are connected back to the BlighterView HMI control station through a number of Wireless Repeater Nodes. The Blighter radars and Wireless Repeater Nodes can be battery powered and/or solar powered for minimal maintenance. The Blighter radar’s Vortex Fast-Scan technology allows all the radars to scan simultaneously with a one second update ensuring that all targets are tracked reliably.

“Blighter MultiWatch provides a cost effective and highly efficient way to monitor a wide area,” said Mark Radford, Director of Security Products at Plextek. “Blighter radars are already being successfully used across the globe to monitor and detect threats, and the addition of Blighter MultiWatch will provide a new level of security for camps, international borders and control lines allowing them to cover much more ground and intercept threats at the earliest possibly opportunity.”