MILDAR will Run Against LONGBOW
The contract for the Development of Advanced Millimeter Wave Radar Systems for Air Platforms project (MILDAR II) was signed on 28 June 2013 between SSM and Meteksan Defence. With the protocol signed on 9 May 2013 at IDEF 2013 between Meteksan Defence and TAI, following the agreement reached on the cooperation in analyzing and testing activities, the stage of sub-contract studies arrived. Three sub-contracts were signed between Meteksan Defence and TAI on dates 27th and 30th of December 2013.
Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar, Meteksan Defence General Manager Murat Erciyes and President and CEO of TAI Muharrem Dörtkaşlı signed the agreement in the ceremony held at SSM premises. Regarding the MILDAR II Program, Meteksan Defence General Manager Murat Erciyes said, “MILDAR will increase our helicopters’ Attack and Survival capabilities. We believe this system bears a great export potential. We aim to run MILDAR against Longbow in international market as soon as the project is ready to operate”.
First Phase of MILDAR Project was completed between years 2007-2011
“Development of Millimeter Wave Radar Technics for Land Target Engagements” Project was conducted between years 2007-2011 as TÜBİTAK 1007 Project by Meteksan Defence as the contractor and Bilkent University as the sub-contractor and was accomplished successfully. With this project named as MILDAR I, millimeter wave radar technics for a multi-functional censor system that would contribute to the safe cruise of the air platforms that could meet the ground and air target acquisition and classification, surveillance and engagement requirements within the scope of the task area of a ground platform were achieved. The second Project was activated as a sequel of the first project with the contract signed between SSM and Meteksan Defence on 28 June 2013.
With the “Development of an Advanced Millimeter Wave Radar for Air Platforms” MILDAR II Project and the experiences gained from MILDAR I Project that was completed in 2011, accomplishment of the following are aimed; benefiting from these experiences in the development of the prototypes that could be used in platforms such as helicopters and UAVs, conducting R&D activities on the products of which the conceptual projection have been accomplished and development of prototypes that could be optimized functionally and physically and thus increasing the attack and survival capabilities of the related air platforms.
T-129 and ANKA Hit the Target with MILDAR Radar
First Phase of the Project consisting of three phases, the Helicopter MILDAR Fire Control Radar will enable the T-129 Attack and Reconnaissance Helicopters the ability to trace and track the targets, multi-target engagement to the tracked targets, 360 degrees positional awareness, operational and navigational support under all weather conditions (Land Profile). This land profile development capability could provide data related to the height of the land for the purpose of navigational support in tough land circumstances where the visibility is low. Additionally, the Millimeter Wave Radar could be integrated to the General Purpose helicopters supplied by Turkish Armed Forces.
UAV MILDAR, the second phase of the Project, will be fire control radar with SAR capacity in line with the combatant UAV concept. This radar that is able to make multi-target acquisition, surveillance and classification could be integrated to the low tactic UAV platforms with little effective weight carrying capacities owing to its low weight and volume and could also be used for visualization through the SAR mode.
The last phase of the Program is the Automatic Landing and Departing Radar is designed as a mono-pulse radar that could minimize the risks arising from the operational restrictions or failures of the operators that share the sensitive location data required for the automatic landing and departing of UAV platforms.
With the “Development of an Advanced Millimeter Wave Radar for Air Platforms” MILDAR II Project, the ground and flight tests and analysis activities will be used in the T-129 Attack Helicopter in TAI’s inventory and Pelikan Unmanned Aerial platforms. Moreover, the demonstration of the Automatic Departing and Landing System will be made with ANKA. The ground and flight tests of the radar system that will be developed for UAV platforms will be made with the S-2E/T platform in TAI’s inventory.
National Critical Technology Acquisition
All three radar prototypes that will be developed through optimization in order to enrich various air platforms will have a common technological infrastructure. Design of the compact and incorporated radar modules for the development of radar prototypes that would cover the demand of low weight, volume and power requirement will be accomplished nationally by Meteksan Defence within the scope of the Project. The system to be developed is expected to meet the demands and criteria regarding the Algorithm optimization, user interface software development and radome designs, consistency with environmental conditions and electromagnetic compatibility and entry requirements. On the other hand, development of RF, electronic and mechanic design are considered among the Project activities. Preparation activities related with the design and certification in accordance with the DO-178 requirements will be realized within the framework of the Project. In the analysis and test activities within the scope of the installment of three systems developed to the platforms, TAI infrastructure and engineering services will be used. In addition to this Meteksan Defence will take consultancy services from Bilkent University for the program.
The millimeter wave used for military surveillance, reconnaissance, monitoring and guidance has many capabilities. The Millimeter Wave is known as the range of frequencies from 30 to 300 gigahertz (this range is the highest radio frequency band). It enables radar designs with low weight, volume and power requirement, high mobility, high angular resolution, high Doppler bandwidth and low detection. With the MILDAR I Project, in addition to the nationally developed software and indigenous signal processing methods Turkey gained technologies in terms of reduction in volume, high-frequency antenna, RF- microwave design and production capacity, multi-functional radar algorithms in the period 2007-2011. Manufacturing of 1 Helicopter-MILDAR prototype, 1 Automatic Departing and Landing System (ADLS) prototype and 1 UAV-MILDAR prototype are aimed within the scope of the program with a budget of 31,5 million TL. And an additional budget of 10,2 million US Dollars. The delivery of the first prototypes is estimated as follows; Helicopter MILDAR Prototype 44 months, ADLS Prototype 58 months and UAV-MILDAR prototype 72 months.
