DeTect, has completed the commissioning of a HARRIER Ground Based Sense-and-Avoid (GBSAA) radar at the Rozas Aerodrome in Lugo, Spain.
The system, supplied to Babcock Mission Critical Services España, will provide beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) for drone and Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations at project sites throughout Spain and Europe for wildfire assessment and firefighting support.
DeTect’s HARRIER GBSAA incorporates the latest in solid-state, Doppler radar technology and real-time web-based situational awareness displays to accommodate a diversity of user applications.
“By incorporating multiple sensors, including radar, TAS and ADSB receivers into the HARRIER system, DeTect is able to provide a cost-effective solution for BVLOS operations to UAS operators” said Edward Zakrajsek, General Manager of DeTect Global, Ltd., London.
The HARRIER GBSAA supports a wide range of UAS operations including wildfire assessment, firefighting, oil and gas site inspections, aerial survey, and law enforcement extending operational ranges to 20 miles (32 kilometers).
Developers of HARRIER say they originally built the systems to protect Air Force bases from birds. The seemingly innocuous creatures created problems when they crossed paths with an aircraft.
Without spending a lot of money, the HARRIER was created – a low-cost system that could detect and track small birds.
(Learn More about DeTect Intelligent Sensors. DeTect HARRIER S200d Air Surveillance Radar (ASR) installed at the Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced Systems (ATLAS) in Villacarillo, Spain to provide detection and tracking of aircraft, drones and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). ATLAS is Europe’s first purpose-built drone and UAS test flight and development range. Courtesy of DeTect and YouTube)
With the growing threat of unmanned aerial systems, the developers of the HARRIER took their system and adapted it to meet a new mission.
“We were already doing these things many years ago,” said Adam Kelly, chief technology officer for DeTect.
“The team came together in 2016 and we rapidly moved to where we can integrate things together. In May we were able to demonstrate how those things can be put together.”
“Now it’s working together as a team to fuse those elements together without spending billions and billions of dollars to get the job done. It’s not trivial, but we built on the core technology that we already had.”
DeTect is a fully integrated radar company with US radar engineering and manufacturing facilities in Florida, and offices in California, Washington DC, Canada and England.
The company is a leader in applied radar remote sensing technologies and systems for small radar cross section targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and birds.
Other DeTect products include DroneWatcher™ drone detection and defense systems, and MERLIN™ aircraft bird strike avoidance radars and avian radars.
