BAE SYSTEMS RADAR TO BOOST SECURITY OF UK AIRSPACE
05 Jan 2007
The security of UK airspace, in support of Homeland Defence, is to be boosted by additional air defence radar capabilities supplied by BAE Systems. Under a new UK Ministry of Defence contract, worth more than £30 million, Europe’s leading defence Company will supply one new and one upgraded Commander Air Defence Radar system to the UK Royal Air Force.
Provision of the medium-to-long range, solid state, rapidly deployable, air defence radars is underpinned by a logistics support agreement (with options) which will remain effective throughout their service life, expected to be at least until 2025.
Welcoming the new contract award, Clive Richardson, managing director BAE Systems’ Integrated Systems Technologies said: “This latest-generation Commander radar underlines our work to address the affordability challenge set by the UK’s Defence Industrial Strategy, through the development of new systems which enhance defence capabilities while reducing through-life costs.”
Designed and built to operate across a range of extreme environmental conditions, the robust and agile Commander radar family provides consistent and reliable radar picture coverage for integrated Command and Control of air defence forces, including the RAF’s quick response Tornado air defence fighters which are being scrambled every month to deal with terror alerts.
Designed for rapid deployment to either prepared or unprepared locations, Commander is equally suited to static operations and can be used as both a ‘backbone’ sensor or a highly capable deployable gap-filling radar.
Group Captain Maurice Dixon, the Air Defence Ground Based Systems Integrated Project Team Leader responsible for the procurement, said, “We are looking forward to receiving the Solid State Commander radars in the next 18 months to allow us to sustain airspace surveillance of the UK mainland in support of Homeland Defence well in to the future.”
We have a long and successful experience of using the older technology Commander Type 101 radars, several of which are deployed on operations overseas in support of UK forces,” he added. “In accordance with the Defence Logistic Organisation’s support strategies we are continuing to build on the successful CLS approach to radar support and exploiting, with our BAE Systems colleagues, our combined capabilities to the full to meet exacting demands on our military resources.”
About BAE SYSTEMS
BAE Systems is the premier transatlantic defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With 88,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded 12 billion pounds (US22 billion dollars) in 2005, excluding the Group's former interest in Airbus.
For further information, please contact:
Mike Sweeney, BAE Systems
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 383074
Mob: +44 (0) 7801 716452
mike.sweeney2@baesystems.com
Mark Ritson, BAE Systems
Tel: +44 (0) 1276 603050
Mob: +44 (0) 7793 424545
mark.ritson2@baesystems.com
Issued by:
BAE Systems, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 6YU, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 384719
Fax: +44 (0) 1252 383947
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