Plextek Launches Blighter B303 Radar (13 September 2011)

  • Scanning 100km² of land, in just 1.5 seconds

Blighter B303 Ground Surveillance Radar on WASP Trailer Plextek, the leading Cambridge design house and technology innovator, has released its new Blighter B303 radar system. Based on the field proven Blighter B202 radars, the B303 offers 180° of electronic scanning (e-scan) in a compact 20 kg pole or mast mounting unit with a detection range out to 8 km. The B303 can scan 100 km² of land, in just 1.5 seconds, making it ideal for mobile and fixed area, border and perimeter surveillance applications. Two Blighter B303 units can also be mounted back-to-back to provide a complete dual-scanning 360° solution for site perimeter protection applications.

 

The Blighter B303 radar system is currently being used by Meridian Defence and Security Ltd on their G-WASP (Ground Wide Area Security Platform) to create a comprehensive trailer mounted multi-sensor surveillance system. The G-WASP system includes the Blighter B303 radar for rapid intruder detection and a long-range Electro-Optic system for target identification purposes. A comprehensive Command and Control system integrates the sensors into an intuitive border surveillance platform. The G-WASP platforms can be interconnected over secure wireless radio links to provide a continuous border surveillance capability.

All Blighter radars use electronic-scanning technology to achieve exceptionally slow speed target detection even in cluttered environments, whilst scanning at high speeds. The Blighter B303 radar uses Plextek’s patented low-cost printed antenna technology to electronically scan a full 180°, equivalent to 100 km² of land, in just 1.5 seconds. Blighter’s electronic scanning system forms precise beams both on transmit and receive, allowing it to ignore and reject targets and clutter that trouble older staring array radars. The B303 radar maintains the exceptionally wide elevation beam width of 20° offered by the B202 product. This feature allows the radar to operate in regions with complex hilly terrain and detect hill-top and valley hugging targets with a single scan. The B303 radar offers a range of software selectable radar modes to optimise the radar for different applications and terrain.

Mark Radford, Director of Security Products at Plextek commented: “The development of the Blighter B303 radar is testament to the success of our existing Blighter B202 Mk 2 portable radar system and Blighter B400 series long-range radars. It extends the capability and cost effectiveness of the Blighter electronic-scanning radar family for short-to-medium range ground surveillance applications, making the Blighter B303 radar the most effective product in its class and price range.”

Mark Hussey of Meridian commented: “The new Blighter B303 radar has been the perfect match to our lightweight trailer mounted surveillance system. The B303 radar is compact and robust making it ideal to use as the prime sensor on our WASP system. We have already received considerable attention from defence users in Europe and the USA and anticipate significant orders in the coming months.”

The Blighter B303 radar will be on display at the Plextek stand S3-495 at DSEI, 13th to 16th Sept. 2011 and also on the Team G-WASP stand (S6-190).