Posted on 03/06/2013 12:43:24 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Royal Navy's new radar revealed
Updated: 06:42, Wednesday March 6, 2013
A new radar that can detect a tennis ball travelling at three times the speed of sound from more than 15 miles away has been fitted to a UK Royal Navy warship.
The Artisan system, which was developed by BAE Systems, was installed on HMS Iron Duke, a Type 23 frigate.
BAE says the medium range 3D surveillance radar is five times more efficient than any other radar currently used by the fleet.
HMS Iron Duke is the first ship in the class to have received the new radar as part of its five-yearly refit and will return to service next year.
The Artisan system is designed to detect smaller and quicker targets against a background of electronic noise and interference that can affect radar efficiency.
The new radar is also able to navigate its way through environments that are densely populated by other signals.
BAE said another major advantage of the Artisan system is the spread and range of targets it can track.
The system is capable of monitoring more than 800 objects at the same time - from the very small to the largest aircraft carriers and destroyers - at a range of between 200 and 200,000 metres.
The radar is being installed as part of a programme to equip Type 23 frigates and amphibious ships.
It will also be used on the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, where it can be used to help the ships' air traffic controllers.
Artisan has been proposed for the new Type 26 frigates, which are due to come into service after 2020.
The radar is made out of the same lightweight carbonfibre materials found in Formula One racing cars.
Weighing 700kg, the Artisan system is designed to take a single team of engineers 21 days to fit, which is said to be a vast improvement on previous systems.
Surely they are referring to ASDIC?
(yes I know that’s SONAR...) I’ve been grumpy since Clinton shut down NOL and the US operational advancements of the 70’s 80’s and 90’s turned into the silly press releases of the 2010s. (It’s no secret: not only can/could we see a small target at that speed, we are/were capable of taking it out....)
A tennis ball 15 miles away at Mach 3 would arrive at the ship in about 9 sec.Not much time to find and acquire target.
OK, what I really want I want to know is why are they fitting this to the type 23 first, a ship is supposed to specialise in anti-sub operations? The Type 45 is the Royal Navy’s air defence destroyer, and this radar, which is supposed to be ‘5 times more powerful than anything else used by the fleet’ should surely be prioritised for the Type 45 given its particular role?
Well, it’s a good thing to know that the British Navy is now safe from supersonic tennis balls. Whew, what a relief.
If they get attacked by Venus and Serena Williams, they will be ready.
Don’t recall the Excocet spec, this thing can defend against it?
I guess the system is being fitted as refit windows turn up.
I also guess that there’s significant hand-over ability allowing non-AA armed ships to nevertheless act as components of an AA cordon.
And of course Point Defense is important for every destroyer.
five times more efficient than anything else used by the fleet
It's a medium range radar sized for frigates. The Type45s already have the Sampson long range 3D radar.
It's bigger
I’m ready, too...
So let's see... 15 miles to the horrizon, so a sea skimming missile would be detectable at that point, maybe 14 miles for sure.
Mach 3, at sea level, that's 1126.547*3 ft./sec. or 768.095*3 MPH in a standard atmosphere; 3379.641 ft./sec. / 2304.285 MPH.
So, 14 miles * (5280 ft./mile) * (1 sec./3379.641 ft.) = 21.87 seconds to impact.
If the ship is at battle stations, assume 5 seconds to launch a first engagement with somthing like a Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM); forget an Evolved Sea Sparrow engagement. If the ship is at stations, assume 10 seconds to first engagement.
In the 5 second case, the ship can get off two RAM volleys, in the 10 second case, one.
After that, it's Gattling gun time.
After that... Well. Since this is a kinetic kill vehicle, there isn't an explosive warhead to worry about, just our friend Kinetic Energy: 1/2 mV^2. And since that's a lot of 'V', the impact detonation will be impressive.
Anything as small as a frigate is on the bottom. A destroyer or cruiser is probably dead in the water, sinking and burning, and a carrier has one heck of a damage control effort going.
Exocent is a subsonic missile like the US harpoon. Yes, this system can see these types of missiles and provide fire control.
Oops, I should probably read things more properly before I go off on one, lol...
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