Elta

IAI Unveiled a Robotic Submarine

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Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced this weekend the first large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), called BlueWhale. According to IAI announcement, the submarine has successfully undergone thousands of autonomous operation hours, including intelligence-gathering for both maritime and coastal targets, acoustic intelligence, and identifying the presence of naval mines. The autonomous submarine can perform its missions for periods of several weeks, without the need for operators on board.

“For the first time in the world, IAI’s Elta managed to bring to maturity the development and production of an autonomous underwater system able to perform a wide range of tasks,” said IAI VP and ELTA’s CEO, Yoav Tourgeman. The 5.5 tons Electric UAV BlueWhale (code named ELI-3325) reaches speeds of up to 7 knots and can stay for up to 30 days on sea. Payload sensors and communications options include RADAR, EO/IR, SIGINT, sonars, magnetic sensors and SATCOM.

The BlueWhale is equipped with a telescopic mast, like the periscope of a manned submarine, several meters high, on which are mounted radar and electro-optical systems for detecting sea and coastal targets. By using a satellite communications antenna on the mast, the gathered data can be transferred in real-time to command posts, anywhere in the world, at sea or on land.

Submarine detection and acoustic intelligence-gathering data is enabled using a sonar, several tens of meters long, towed by the BlueWhale, and by flank array sonar with receiver arrays attached to both sides of the platform. Mine detection is performed using a dedicated synthetic aperture sonar, attached to the sides of the vessel. IAI also revealed that the development of the system brought to  a number of international registered patents.

ELTA Revealed SAR-based Counter-IED/Mine Suite

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Recognizing that no single sensor can provide adequate and accurate detection of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and Mines, IAI has developed an integrated Counter-IED and Counter Mine protection system that is said to reliably detect surface and underground IEDs, mines, and roadside bombs. Based on IAI’s ELTA new SAR radar, the Counter-IED and Counter Mine Suite (CIMS) ELI-3375, employs Surface IEDs Detection Radar, GigaPix Optical Detection System and IR-based underground Mine and IED Detection System.

ELTA has disclosed that the suite can detect Disguised IEDs and Mines and to provide 270˚ early warning coverage of the combat platform (manned or unmanned). It also provides automatic cueing of the investigating sensors and Clean Route recordings of obstacles, IEDs and mines. There is an option to equip the system with countering techniques and hard kill systems tailored according to the specific needs.

The new system belongs to a new genetration of small and mobile Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) produced by ELTA Systems. Earlier this week it announced another lightweight SAR codenamed ELM-2054, for use in Small Tactical UAVs (STUAV), tactical VTOL UAVs, ultra-light reconnaissance aircraft, aerostats, and other compact airborne platforms.

The ELM-2054 reaches a range of up to 20KMs with a weights of only 8kgs-10kgs, in a power envelope of less than 200 Watt and 28 Vdc. It provides SAR Strip area collection rate of up to 750 km2/hour and performs onboard processing of SAR images enabling low downlink data rates. Main missions include Surveillance, Damage Assessment, Anti-terror warfare, Counter narcotics and smuggling prevention, Monitor disaster areas and Maritime missions.

IAI and HENSOLDT Cooperation on Ballistic Missile Defense

ELTA is the radar division of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). As such, it also responsible for the development of the powerful radar of Israel’s Ballistic Missile Defence Systems. Last month IAI announced a cooperation agreement with HENSOLDT to supply new radars to the German Armed Forces to modernise their airspace surveillance and build up Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capabilities.

The Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment has placed an order for the delivery and installation of four long-range radars worth approximately 200 million euros. For this purpose, Hensoldt has entered into a cooperation in the field of BMD-capable long-range radars with ELTA. Headquartered in Taufkirchen near Munich, Germany, HENSOLDT develops sensor solutions for defense and security applications. With approximately 5,600 employees, HENSOLDT generated revenues of 1.2 billion euros in 2020.

IAI Integrates Naval Combat Suite on Sa’ar 6 Corvettes

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Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), together with the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (part of IMoD) and the Israeli Navy, completed the first phase of installing the MF-STAR (Magen Adir) radars on the Israeli Navy’s ‘Sa’ar 6’ corvettes.The next stage will be the  egration of the BARAK MX Air Defense System (Ra’am Adir) on the vessels. The radars will serve to locate and classify air and surface targets and help to build an advanced and detailed maritime picture of the surveillance area. The MF-STAR radar system will serve as the “brain” of the Israeli Navy’s new warships. It is also an important component of the BARAK Air Defense System.

ELTA’s MF-STAR (ELM-2248) is a digital AESA (Active Electronic Scanning Array) multi-function radar. It employs multi-beam and pulse Doppler techniques as well as Electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) techniques to extract low Radar cross-section (RCS) targets from complex clutter and jamming environments. The Transmit/Receive element digital output enables software only adaptive beam forming and mode variations to form a software defined radar. The MF-STAR antenna includes 4 scalable faces of active arrays in S-Band frequency. These 4 faces can be installed in various configurations and in different sizes.

Upon identifying a threat, the radar supplies all required data immediately to each control, defense and support systems on deck, enabling to respond in real-time. The BARAK MX Air Defense System provides both wide-area and targeted defense capabilities to an array of threats, including: land, air and sea. The system aggregates several key cutting-edge systems: a digital radar, weapon control system, launchers, a range of interceptors for different ranges with advanced homing devices, data-link communication and system wide connectivity.

IAI Unveiled a Passive Radar

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ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries Group, unveiled this week a new Passive Coherent Location Radar System, enables the creation of an air situation using non-cooperative transmitters. It detects and tracks aerial threats based on target reflection from FM or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) towers. The reflections are received by one or a network of antennas, providing 3D real-time tracking of multiple targets in congested airborne traffic.

The PCL system installation can include one sensor or a cluster of sensors for redundancy and improved coverage. The sites are connected to the central PCL command and control processing unit via a dedicated data link. General Manager of ELTA Intelligence, Communications and EW division, Adi Dulberg, said that the PCL system detects and classifies aerial risks, “without unveiling the locator.”

Very small footprint

Passive coherent location systems (sometimes called ‘Passive Radar’) systems are a variant of Bistatic Radar in which the reciever and the transmitter are separate. But the PCL variant does not employ any transmitter at all – it exploit ‘existing illuminators’ as their sources of radar transmission. These sources can be analogue FM radio, cellular phone base stations, digital audio broadcast (DAB) and other sources.

Passive radar systems offer several key benefits. They are hard to detect by conventional means: Electronic sensors cannot pick them up because they do not transmit their own signals. They have no transmitters generating heat, so they cannot be detected thermal signatures, and they are small and quite difficult to spot. According to Visiongain rtesearch firm, the global passive radar market is projected to grow from US$ 2,324 million in 2020 to US$ 4,313 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 6.38% between 2020 and 2030.