Seaspray (radar)

Seaspray is series of a British airborne maritime radar systems, initially developed by Ferranti for the Lynx helicopter, built in Edinburgh.

History

It was launched as the ARI.5979 Mk1 version in 1971. It was a 90kW I band radar. It was mechanically scanned in both axes. The segment reflector was made of lightweight foam, faced with a wire mesh. Reflector and feed horn moved 180° in azimuth, with a fixed horn and the reflector moving for elevation. In the Lynx, it was installed in the nose.

Trials of the Seaspray radar system began in 1974. The contract for the system was given to Ferranti in July 1969. The AESA version was launched in July 2002 by BAE System Avionics.[1]

The division of Ferranti that developed Seaspray became GEC-Marconi then BAE Systems.

Frequency bands

The seaspray radar advertised by Selex ES[2] is operating in the X band.

Development

More recent versions of the radar are an active electronically scanned array type of radar. This also offered 360° scanning and was housed in a cylindrical radome beneath the nose. It was developed by Ferranti Defence Systems (Ferranti Radar Systems) in Edinburgh,[3] overseen by Sir Donald McCallum. Adrian Hope, 4th Marquess of Linlithgow worked on the system.

The more recent versions of Seaspray deploy a system called e-Scan. The system can find objects to a range of 200 nautical miles.

Operations

The Royal Danish Navy bought the system in the late 1970s. 709 Naval Air Squadron were the first to have Seaspray-equipped Lynx helicopters in 1978. 24 Royal Navy Lynx HAS.2s were sent to the Falklands War, and 16 of these were equipped with Seaspray. In 1992, the Seaspray 2000 was sold to the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency for £0.5m. In January 1999, the German Navy (Deutsche Marine) bought the system for £15m for its Lynx helicopters. In August 2005, the United States Coast Guard bought the Seaspray 7500E radar system for £69m for its 27 HC-130 Hercules aircraft.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Flight Global July 2002
  2. ↑ (PDF) http://www.leonardocompany.com/documents/63265270/65499306/mm07776_Seaspray_7000E_LQ_.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ Flight Global 1991
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