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| Aerostat Air Defence Radars |
Militarymedia.net - Saudi Arabia has been hit by Kamikaze drone strikes launched by Houthi militias from Yemen. Although it is a mini-size drone, however, the damage caused is quite large, especially if the targeted are oil installations and airports. Although it is reported to have pulled the battery of the Patriot hanud system from Saudi Arabia, it seems that the United States does not want to leave its allies in trouble.
Even Washington is sending Phaser High Power Microwave Counter Drones. Raytheon's state-of-the-art device was specifically brought in by Saudi Arabia for operational evaluation tests to ward off drone strikes. In the trial, Phaser is said to have successfully dropped two mini drones with high waves.
Installed on a 20-foot trailer platform, the anti-drone weapon system is equipped with integrated radar to detect and track movements from drones. The option to eliminate drones consists of 'interfering' with jamming to 'damaging' the target drone.
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| Aerostat Air Defence Radars |
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) has released a request for information (RFI) for the adoption of air radar mounted on aerostat rides, where radars on aerostats can perform more optimal detection on the presence of low-flying missiles, drones and fighter jets.
The US AFLCMC in its study concluded that ground radar deployment is less effective in Saudi Arabia, because of the geographical contours of a combination of deserts and hills, making the coverage of ground radar not optimal, and un ekonomis economical because it requires a lot of radar station presence to close the blank spot.
The US AFLMC illustrates that radar antennas placed at a tower height of 30 meters are said to be unable to see threats flying at altitudes of 100 feet (30 meters) to a distance of 45 km.
The US AFLMC's proposed solution is to increase radar position, such as by increasing radar presence at an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,524 meters), then the radar range can reach 180 km with a coverage of 360 degrees. The US AFLMC recommends the installation of these radars at 13 points of the border area in Saudi Arabia.
As a platform in the US AFLMC solution is Aerostat, a hot air balloon that acts as a low level airborne ground surveillance system. Because it is called airing at low level, the concept is different from HAPS (High Altitude Platform Station), although both rely on hot air balloon rides.
Aerostat as a radar station is not really new, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are known to have conducted a series of radar tests at Aerostat since the early 90s. The adoption of Aerostat enables year-round aerial surveillance in desert, mountain and coastal conditions with wind speeds of up to 102 km per hour. Two Aeorstat systems are ideally set up in each location to provide operational backups when a time is needed.
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| Aerostat Air Defence Radars |
In addition to 360-degree coverage, aerostat's airborne radar system will have a minimum detection distance up to the line of sight limit, at least able to detect the presence of targets at an altitude of 30 meters. Such threats could include cruise missiles, drones and aircraft with cross section radars below 0.1 m2.
One aerostat model now available is jlens, a durable over-the-horizon sensor system designed primarily to detect and track enemy cruise missiles; With a payload of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) EL/M-2083 radar, JLENS can detect and track low-flying aircraft and unmanned aerial systems at a distance of 500 km.
The JLENS, which flies at an altitude of 15,000 feet (7,600 meters), combines the ability to detect and track ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets, and surface targets on land and sea. The JLENS system consists of two aerostats integrated with surveillance radar and fire control radar.
Aerostat as a blimp is connected to the installation on the surface (ground station) via tethering cable. For safety and security reasons, the air space around the Aerostat mooring site is limited to a radius of at least 5 km and an altitude of up to 15,000 feet (4,600 m) must be sterile.
