Drone Defense: Army Anti-Artillery Radar Tracks UAVs
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on June 27, 2016 at 2:34 PM
Lockheed Martin photo
Q-53 counterbattery radar (Lockheed Martin)
From lasers to jammers to snipers, the US military has tried lots of technologies and tactics to get rid of enemy drones. But before you can shoot it, you have to see it — preferably far away, before its cameras spot your troops and, say, dive-bomb them or relay their position to a battery of rocket launchers. So the Army is also experimenting with drone-detecting radar.
Enter Lockheed Martin’s AN/TPQ-53. This truck-mounted radar was originally designed to track incoming fire — rockets, artillery shells, and mortar rounds — and calculate its origin point for retaliatory “counter-battery” shots. Drones are dramatically different targets: Tactical drones operate at roughly the same altitudes as artillery but maneuver, often slowly, or outright hover in the air, rather than streaking along an undeviating trajectory. But modern AESA radars (Active Electronically Scanned Array) are considerably more versatile than traditional radars.
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