Operation
The WLR is designed to detect and track incoming artillery rounds, mortar and rockets and locate their launchers. In its secondary role, it can also track and observe the fall of shot from friendly guns and provide fire corrections to counter-battery fire.
The detection range for large caliber artillery rounds is up to 30 km, and increases to 40 km for unguided rockets. The robust design of the radar array and algorithms allows the WLR to effectively operate even in a high density fire environment, in severe clutter and interference (jamming) conditions. Up to 7 targets can be tracked simultaneously. The radar can track rounds fired at both low and high angles, and at all aspect angles - from behind or towards the radar, or at an oblique angle to the array. The WLR features adaptive radar resource scheduling to increase efficiency and reliability.
At a given position, the radar can scan for targets in one quadrant, encompassing a 90° sector. The array can electronically scan up to +/-45° from its mean bearing. Additionally, for 360° coverage from a given position, the whole array can be rotated by 135° on either side within 30 seconds to quickly change the scanning sector in response to threats.
Upon detecting an incoming round, the automatically acquires and classifies the threat and initiates a track sequence, while continuing to search for new targets. The incoming round's trajectory is tracked, and a computer program analyzes the track data and then extrapolates the round's point of origin. This calculated point of origin is then reported to the radar operator, thus allowing friendly artillery to direct counter-battery fire towards the enemy artillery.
The WLR also allows for remote operation, and data-linking for better situational awareness at higher echelons of the command hierarchy. The data can be automatically transmitted to a command center, and can communicate with higher echelons. The radar data can also be displayed on a remote screen to protect operators from any targeted attacks on the radar. The operators can also remotely change the scanning sector. Many radars can be networked together to work in tandem and increase the accuracy and provide more information.
Read more about this topic: BEL Weapon Locating Radar
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