01 Jun 2005
-
Two Hawk TMK1 aircraft in flight
Military jets, acting together, could soon be able to pinpoint the positions of mobile enemy missile launchers to within a few metres by homing in on their radar signals.
By allowing a group of aircraft to swap information almost instantaneously, the ATC with SELEX have invented a new way of targeting these unpredictable threats from many kilometres away with greatly improved speed and precision.
Every military pilot’s nightmare is the threat of mobile missiles batteries in enemy territory that ‘pop-up’ without warning. For patrolling aircraft on peacekeeping or attack missions, the danger of encountering Surface to Air Missiles (SAMS) is ever present. These deadly weapons can be moved to new positions, set-up and then fired within 15 minutes. From a distance, the only signs of their presence are the radar signals transmitted briefly from their targeting equipment when they are about to be used. Our pilots need to be able to locate these signals with ‘post-code’ accuracy and destroy the launchers within seconds while minimising the risk to nearby civilians.
In this lethal game of cat and mouse, technology from the ATC and SELEX is keeping one step ahead by using the latest digital, position finding technology combined with measurement of time to a precision of a few billionths of a second.
“The trick is, when you’ve in a moving platform, to locate yourself in time and space. The aim is to locate brief signals to within a few metres from a range of 100km.” says Robert Pollard, team leader at the ATC. “Our method relies on Global Position Satellites and atomic clocks which are among the most accurate clocks in the world.”
The idea works by allowing two or more aircraft to ‘network’ together and set up a space-time reference which is synchronised to within nano-seconds using this technology. The breakthrough made by the ATC is in the accuracy of this two way timing. By teaming up, military jets can locate the signals from targets far more accurately than could be achieved by a lone aircraft.
The benefits of this technology could go beyond missile detection. Many other sources of transmission could be located using this approach. For example, a radio jamming transmitter could be found with the same approach. Potential non-defence uses extend to policing the radio spectrum by finding illegal broadcasters and location of survival beacons in search and rescue missions.
Together with SELEX, Robert and his team have successfully tried out the idea using a low cost demonstrator based on readily available equipment and are ready to move to the next phase in development. A more detailed and specific trial is planned for later this year using a BAE Systems radar system.
