The Smart-L air search radars in the Royal Netherlands Navy's De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates are to be upgraded with an extended long-range (ELR) mode, the Dutch Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 26 September.
Costing a projected EUR250 million (USD340 million), the technology insertion will allow the four frigates to detect and track ballistic missiles up to an estimated range of 2,000 km.
The capability enhancement could form part of NATO's Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (ALTBMD) programme and could also augment the US-led European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) programme, which will field land-based Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) systems in Poland and Romania.
According to Thales Nederland, which developed and manufactures the Smart-L 3-D D-band radar, the technology involved in the project is already proven in the De Zeven Provinciën-class. In December 2006 the Smart-L sensor in second-of-class HrMs Tromp was equipped with an ELR upgrade for trials at the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii. Tromp successfully tracked a short-range ballistic missile target and correctly extrapolated the predicted point of impact and the launch site.
No comments:
Post a Comment