As nations move to the sea, mining energy, mineral exploitation, fishery, and trade it becomes essential to extend the security beyond the coastline, to monitor and safeguard their Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ). Monitoring the growing activity offshore means countries must commit many more assets to maritime security.
(Credit: IAI)
Since the conventional coastal radars are limited by the horizon, navies and coastguards use naval patrol aircraft and boats for maritime surveillance, operating from coastal airfields and ports. IAI ELTA Systems’ operationally-proven Over the Horizon (OTH) radar extend the control of an EEZ by providing 24X7 surveillance of large sea areas and low-level airspace, under all weather and sea states.
Based on proprietary phased array technology, IAI’s ELM-2270 (developed in cooperation with the Brazilian company IACIT) uses HF surface wave propagation and unique noise cancellation techniques to cover large areas at sea, detecting targets well beyond the horizon, covering 200+ nautical miles from the shoreline. Linked into a network of several OTH sites and other sensors, OTH offers efficient maritime surveillance coverage, detecting and tracking maritime and low-level aircraft activity throughout the EEZ.
Other data sources can enhance the OTH persistent surveillance, delivering OTH situational awareness picture. Fusions several intelligence sources, the radar facilitates automatic anomaly detection to highlight suspicious activity over the entire EEZ. Such sources include the Automatic Identification System (AIS) services and Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites (SAR). Complemented by other assets, such as maritime unmanned aerial vehicles (UAS), carrying radar and electro-optical sensors, the SAP security forces directed to investigate suspicious tracks.
(Credit: IAI)
