Holographic Radar Trialled Close to WWII Home

Aveillant’s extended range Holographic Radar™ is to be trialled in November at a site near  Woodbridge, Suffolk, very close to where the world’s first persistent surveillance radar protected England’s shores from enemy aircraft during the Second World War.

This latest version of Aveillant’s radar solution has a range of over 20 nautical miles and demonstrates the ability of Holographic Radar to successfully identify and differentiate aircraft from wind turbines over offshore wind farms at a 90%+ Probability of Detection level. A 40 plus nautical mile version of Holographic Radar™ is scheduled for release in 2015.

The trial will demonstrate the extremely high performance of the radar over an offshore wind farm and how the persistent surveillance enables intelligent characterisation of the radar targets. Sea clutter, maritime vessels and aircraft will all be clearly identified and removed as appropriate from the radar display.

The principle behind Aveillant’s Holographic Radar™ technology has its foundations in the Chain Home radars that were set up along the coast of Britain during the Second World War to detect enemy aircraft and guide air defence. By using separate static transmitters and receivers, Chain Home allowed the operator to effectively analyse the threat, due to the continuous surveillance of the airspace but it required an additional manual search for range and direction measurements. Scanning (or rotating) radar was more efficient at the latter, but by limiting surveillance to brief glances in a single direction during the sweep, it sacrificed the key analytical capability. Holographic Radar combines the benefits of both types of system and provides a comprehensive high update rate intelligent surveillance capability.

Gordon Oswald, Chief Technology Officer, said: “Our new long range Holographic Radar™ which is set to be tested close to the site of a WWII Chain Home radar, is the most advanced radar technology today, returning to its origin. There’s a real sense of celebration with this trial as we showcase the long range intelligent monitoring capability of our system.

“This year has proven to be one of the most exciting in Aveillant’s history, and it’s not over yet as we look to the future and the exciting possibilities that Holographic Radar could hold for the defence, maritime and energy industries and beyond.”

History of radar development

1930s
Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) used separate transmitters and receivers to achieve, for its time, high accuracy and continuous surveillance.

1940s
The magnetron and duplexer enable the transmitter and receiver to be combined into a single rotating antenna to provide 360 degree coverage at the expense of continuous surveillance.

1950s
Klystrons and Travelling Wave Tubes provide more stability and power, allowing radars to be deployed on ships, aircraft and vehicles.

1960s+
Solid state technology enables flat panel phased arrays with electronic beam steering. Due to cost these are aimed at defence applications requiring high-rate tracking.

2000s
Cambridge Consultants Ltd creates a low-cost, high-performance, flat-panel phased array radar using COTS technology which is the precursor of Holographic Radar™.

2011
Aveillant Ltd is formed to commercialise the Holographic Radar™ technology. Focusing on intelligent target characterisation, it provides a high-precision, three-dimensional persistent surveillance of the airspace.

2013
Holographic Radar is the outstanding performer in the US IFT&E Mitigation Trials and is demonstrated at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, successfully mitigating multiple wind farms. It is independently verified to meet UK and European performance requirements.

2014
CAA awards Aveillant a contract to demonstrate use of Holographic Radar™ in support of the Spectrum Release programme. The 25 nautical mile range version of Holographic Radar™ in released.

2015
Holographic Radar™ range is extended to 40+ nautical miles. Development continues to improve intelligent characterisation and identification of targets, based on 100% time on target and continuous high-precision Doppler signatures.

2020+
To support requirements on spectrum efficiency, Holographic Radar™ is networked to provide next-generation regional and national high-definition volumetric coverage of airspace up to 60,000 ft.