Lockheed to work on advanced Predator radar system

Here is some good news for the fly-boys of the 432nd Air Wing, the Air Force’s first UAV grouping of that size. As we reported the other day, the wing consists of six Reapers and sixty General Atomics-made Predators expected to fly 75,000 hours this year, mostly in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now we have some additional Predator-related news. Industry heavyweight Lockheed Martin announced this week that it had won a $40 million Army contract to incorporate low frequency synthetic aperture radar systems into the unmanned craft. The radar system, known as the Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar (TRACER), is intended to improve targetting operations.

“By migrating this advanced synthetic aperture radar technology to UAVs and other platforms, TRACER will be a key asset in combating the global war on terrorism,” said Lockeed’s John Mengucci. Key to the system’s design is Lockheed’s foliage penetration (FOPEN) technology, which was developed by DARPA specifically to detect vehicles, buildings, and large metallic objects in broad areas of dense foliage, forested areas, and wooded terrain. Also critical are the development, integration and test of two VHF/UHF dual-band synthetic aperture radar systems themselves, as well as upgrading the associated ground stations that plan the Predators’s missions and analyze the images they return home with.