30/05/2018

ADS integrates world’s lowest power missile detection radar for Autonomous Protection Systems

ADS sets the market standard for APS system design

Bonn, Germany, 08/06/2018 – ADS Gesellschaft für aktive Schutzsysteme mbH, the pioneer in reliable and precise hard-kill Active Protection Systems, today announces that it has integrated the world’s lowest power radar for APS missile detection into its’ ADS-Gen3 APS, giving its adopters significant tactical battlefield advantage.

In symmetric warfare environments such as Eastern Europe the adversary has sophisticated Electronic Warfare (EW) capability. Deployment of advanced APS defensive measures that utilise radar must respond by lowering their detection profile to the greatest extent possible. This is achieved by making the missile detection distance requirement of the APS radar as small as feasible, directly facilitating the integration of the lowest power radar.

ADS focussed on extreme performance for its missile detection to countermeasure deployment time for ADS-Gen3, resulting in what is referred to as a Minimum Defeat Distance (MDD) of <10m for successful detection to missile destruction. This is 5x to 15x less than adversary launcher APSs, granting allied forces a huge tactical EW detection and potential jamming advantage when contrasted with adversarial APS deployments. To put this into context, this means EW receivers have to be within 350m. Even with SIGINT airborne detection systems ADS-Gen3 won’t be detected unless within 10Km. For the adversary these distances are at least two orders of magnitude greater.

Despite being very difficult to detect, ADS sensors still provide valuable threat data to the vehicle’s Battle Management System or to other integrated systems. This increases overall situation awareness and enables crews to engage adversaries with an immediate and targeted response.

ADS-Gen3 radiates less power, and thus EW visibility, than even the radio communication systems used vehicle to vehicle. “By designing the fastest next generation Autonomous Protection System, we give armoured vehicles and tanks full missile defence whilst granting EW advantage in the symmetric warfare contexts such as NE Europe.” Said Dr. Ronald Meixner, ADS “By keeping the power radiation below that of communication systems ADS-Gen3 minimizes the potential for APS EW detection and jamming.”

“Our investment in the world’s fastest response APS delivers innovation opportunity and deployed tactical advantage.” said Stefan Haase, CEO ADS, “We have been able to integrate an incredibly low power radar into our APS, granting huge battlefield advantage.”

 

Further information:

•   Companion Press Briefing document “Electronic Warfare and Battle Management System
•   Brief May 2018”
•   Information on http://www.ads-protection.org/news

 

 

About ADS

ADS Gesellschaft für aktive Schutzsysteme mbH, is a world leading pioneer in reliable and precise hard-kill Active Protection Systems (APSs). Part of the Rheinmetall group of companies, ADS brings the rigorous engineering principles of the automotive sector to the defence sector and specifically to APS’s. As an innovator ADS is the world’s first APS developer to apply safety-critical design principles to APS development to deliver predictable and safe system performance.

 

 

Media Contact Details

Oliver Hoffmann
Head of Public Relations
Rheinmetall AG

Office: +49-(0)211-473 4748
Email: oliver.hoffmann@rheinmetall.com

 

ADS Technical Briefing Support:

Geoff Revill

Office: +44 117 230 2344
Mobile: +44 7717 472171
Email: geoff@market-altitude.com

 

 

 

 


 

Electronic Warfare and Battle Management System Briefing for APS and ADS-Gen-3

This document provides a contextual briefing for the importance of missile sensor design for Autonomous Protection Systems. It discusses the role of an APS in a Battle Management System (BMS) and the tactical objectives for radar design for APS’s in an Electronic Warfare context.

 

 

EW Perspective

Why is APS radar design so important?
In any symmetric warfare environment with an adversary that is equipped with sophisticated Electronic Warfare (EW) or Signal intelligence (SIGINT) capability it behooves the APS provider to compete to mitigate comparative EW exposure. Radars visible at long range alert the adversary of the incoming threat, possibly its range and position, type and certainly its number.
While the threat of the RPG being able to take out a main battle tank has driven much of western country to APS adoption, the renewed threat of a cold war requires a broader consideration of APS design to take into account EW.

 

What does the adversary’s system look like?
Russia has led APS deployment since the 1980’s and the west is only just starting to recognize the need to integrate this technology. Russia has universally used a launcher-based approach to APS design. These systems need significant (in missile speed context) time to respond to a recognized threat and orientate the launcher to intercept. This time factor means the radar has to be powerful enough to recognize a threat from anything from 60m to several 100m’s.
In addition Russia has invested heavily in EW and SIGINT capability and powerful jamming capabilities. This creates a wholly different context for APS deployment when contrasted with the Middle East, where a strongly capable EW adversary is rarely part of the battlefield environment. Summing up Soviet attitudes toward the role of electronic warfare systems, Adm. Sergei G. Gorshkov, the late commander of the Soviet Navy, said in 1972, „The next war will be won by the side that best exploits the electromagnetic spectrum.“

 

How can the west gain tactical advantage?
By adopting APS’s that react much faster. The time from recognition of a threat to ability to destroy the threat has to be minimized, because this has a direct impact on the power requirements of the radar. The longer the APS takes to respond, the further out it needs to recognize the threat and thus the greater range and power the radar needs. Radar has to exponentially increase its power to gain a single order of range gain, so the APS missile detection distance has a massive impact on radar power requirement, as this graph shows.

 

Radar or Comms System

.
.

Detectable Range

Electronic Warfare Support Measures
(ESM used by ground systems)

Detectable Range

Electronic Intelligence
(ELINT used by aircraft surveillance)

Distributed APS (1 W)
(e.g. ADS-Gen3)
~ 0.35 km ~ 6.0 km
VHF Tactical Radio (10 W)
Launcher APS (100 W) ~ 21.5 km ~ 380 km
Launcher APS (200 W) ~ 30 km ~ 535 km

 

Clearly the tactical advantage of being able to remain undetected whilst sustaining full APS capability is significant. In Eastern Europe this means the West will know almost immediately when Russian tanks are on the move whereas the converse is not true for western tanks or vehicles.

 

What other advantage is there to ultra low power APS radar?
There are two types of detectable emissions, those used by communication systems detectable by COMINT systems, and those used by radar and other sensors detected by ELINT systems. In general the power output of communication systems is much lower than most radars. But an ultra low power radar can, and in the case of ADS-Gen3 is, lower power output than the communication systems. This means that it does not expose the vehicle to any greater detection possibility than having a radio system active.

 

 

Battle Management Systems Enhancement (BMS)

How does an APS contribute to a BMS?
An APS needs to identify the trajectory and the missile type in order to ensure a ‘hard kill’. This means that an enemy surprise attack is automatically defeated by the APS, but more importantly the enemy has now disclosed their type (based on missile type) and their bearing from the vehicle. Integration of this information from the APS can directly guide an immediate response from the vehicle, knowing whether a machine gun or heavy cannon is needed to defeat the attacker. This data can be automatically shared with all allied forces in the vicinity to enable a coordinated response.

 

Does a lower power radar mean you lose this BMS value?
No. You gain the same data value from an APS protected vehicle irrespective of the range capabilities of the radar.

 

► Read less

ADS sets the market standard for APS system design

Bonn, Germany, 08/06/2018 – ADS Gesellschaft für aktive Schutzsysteme mbH, the pioneer in reliable and precise hard-kill Active Protection Systems, today announces that it has integrated the world’s lowest power radar for APS missile detection into its’ ADS-Gen3 APS, giving its adopters significant tactical battlefield advantage.

In symmetric warfare environments such as Eastern Europe the adversary has sophisticated Electronic Warfare (EW) capability. Deployment of advanced APS defensive measures that utilise radar must respond by lowering their detection profile to the greatest extent possible. This is achieved by making the missile detection distance requirement of the APS radar as small as feasible, directly facilitating the integration of the lowest power radar.

ADS focussed on extreme performance for its missile detection to countermeasure deployment time for ADS-Gen3, resulting in what is referred to as a Minimum Defeat Distance (MDD) of <10m for successful detection to missile destruction. This is 5x to 15x less than adversary launcher APSs, granting allied forces a huge tactical EW detection and potential jamming advantage when contrasted with adversarial APS deployments. To put this into context, this means EW receivers have to be within 350m. Even with SIGINT airborne detection systems ADS-Gen3 won’t be detected unless within 10Km. For the adversary these distances are at least two orders of magnitude greater.

Despite being very difficult to detect, ADS sensors still provide valuable threat data to the vehicle’s Battle Management System or to other integrated systems. This increases overall situation awareness and enables crews to engage adversaries with an immediate and targeted response.

ADS-Gen3 radiates less power, and thus EW visibility, than even the radio communication systems used vehicle to vehicle. “By designing the fastest next generation Autonomous Protection System, we give armoured vehicles and tanks full missile defence whilst granting EW advantage in the symmetric warfare contexts such as NE Europe.” Said Dr. Ronald Meixner, ADS “By keeping the power radiation below that of communication systems ADS-Gen3 minimizes the potential for APS EW detection and jamming.”

“Our investment in the world’s fastest response APS delivers innovation opportunity and deployed tactical advantage.” said Stefan Haase, CEO ADS, “We have been able to integrate an incredibly low power radar into our APS, granting huge battlefield advantage.”

 

Further information:

•   Companion Press Briefing document “Electronic Warfare and Battle Management System
•   Brief May 2018”
•   Information on http://www.ads-protection.org/news

 

 

About ADS

ADS Gesellschaft für aktive Schutzsysteme mbH, is a world leading pioneer in reliable and precise hard-kill Active Protection Systems (APSs). Part of the Rheinmetall group of companies, ADS brings the rigorous engineering principles of the automotive sector to the defence sector and specifically to APS’s. As an innovator ADS is the world’s first APS developer to apply safety-critical design principles to APS development to deliver predictable and safe system performance.

 

 

Media Contact Details

Oliver Hoffmann
Head of Public Relations
Rheinmetall AG

Office: +49-(0)211-473 4748
Email: oliver.hoffmann@rheinmetall.com

 

ADS Technical Briefing Support:

Geoff Revill

Office: +44 117 230 2344
Mobile: +44 7717 472171
Email: geoff@market-altitude.com

 

 

 

 


 

Electronic Warfare and Battle Management System Briefing for APS and ADS-Gen-3

This document provides a contextual briefing for the importance of missile sensor design for Autonomous Protection Systems. It discusses the role of an APS in a Battle Management System (BMS) and the tactical objectives for radar design for APS’s in an Electronic Warfare context.

 

 

EW Perspective

Why is APS radar design so important?
In any symmetric warfare environment with an adversary that is equipped with sophisticated Electronic Warfare (EW) or Signal intelligence (SIGINT) capability it behooves the APS provider to compete to mitigate comparative EW exposure. Radars visible at long range alert the adversary of the incoming threat, possibly its range and position, type and certainly its number.
While the threat of the RPG being able to take out a main battle tank has driven much of western country to APS adoption, the renewed threat of a cold war requires a broader consideration of APS design to take into account EW.

 

What does the adversary’s system look like?
Russia has led APS deployment since the 1980’s and the west is only just starting to recognize the need to integrate this technology. Russia has universally used a launcher-based approach to APS design. These systems need significant (in missile speed context) time to respond to a recognized threat and orientate the launcher to intercept. This time factor means the radar has to be powerful enough to recognize a threat from anything from 60m to several 100m’s.
In addition Russia has invested heavily in EW and SIGINT capability and powerful jamming capabilities. This creates a wholly different context for APS deployment when contrasted with the Middle East, where a strongly capable EW adversary is rarely part of the battlefield environment. Summing up Soviet attitudes toward the role of electronic warfare systems, Adm. Sergei G. Gorshkov, the late commander of the Soviet Navy, said in 1972, „The next war will be won by the side that best exploits the electromagnetic spectrum.“

 

How can the west gain tactical advantage?
By adopting APS’s that react much faster. The time from recognition of a threat to ability to destroy the threat has to be minimized, because this has a direct impact on the power requirements of the radar. The longer the APS takes to respond, the further out it needs to recognize the threat and thus the greater range and power the radar needs. Radar has to exponentially increase its power to gain a single order of range gain, so the APS missile detection distance has a massive impact on radar power requirement, as this graph shows.

 

Radar or Comms System

.
.

Detectable Range

Electronic Warfare Support Measures
(ESM used by ground systems)

Detectable Range

Electronic Intelligence
(ELINT used by aircraft surveillance)

Distributed APS (1 W)
(e.g. ADS-Gen3)
~ 0.35 km ~ 6.0 km
VHF Tactical Radio (10 W)
Launcher APS (100 W) ~ 21.5 km ~ 380 km
Launcher APS (200 W) ~ 30 km ~ 535 km

 

Clearly the tactical advantage of being able to remain undetected whilst sustaining full APS capability is significant. In Eastern Europe this means the West will know almost immediately when Russian tanks are on the move whereas the converse is not true for western tanks or vehicles.

 

What other advantage is there to ultra low power APS radar?
There are two types of detectable emissions, those used by communication systems detectable by COMINT systems, and those used by radar and other sensors detected by ELINT systems. In general the power output of communication systems is much lower than most radars. But an ultra low power radar can, and in the case of ADS-Gen3 is, lower power output than the communication systems. This means that it does not expose the vehicle to any greater detection possibility than having a radio system active.

 

 

Battle Management Systems Enhancement (BMS)

How does an APS contribute to a BMS?
An APS needs to identify the trajectory and the missile type in order to ensure a ‘hard kill’. This means that an enemy surprise attack is automatically defeated by the APS, but more importantly the enemy has now disclosed their type (based on missile type) and their bearing from the vehicle. Integration of this information from the APS can directly guide an immediate response from the vehicle, knowing whether a machine gun or heavy cannon is needed to defeat the attacker. This data can be automatically shared with all allied forces in the vicinity to enable a coordinated response.

 

Does a lower power radar mean you lose this BMS value?
No. You gain the same data value from an APS protected vehicle irrespective of the range capabilities of the radar.

 

► Read less