Selex ES, a Finmeccanica company, has successfully completed operational trials of all versions of its KRONOS multi-function radar. These top-of-class sensors make the difference for those who operate in surveillance and air defence, both on land and at sea. Announced at Bahrain International Airshow 2014, this achievement will enable Selex ES to further increase its already significant market share in radars and systems for air and naval defence.
The KRONOS radar exploits Selex ES’s advanced Active Electronic Scanning Array (AESA) technology. It is able to perform surveillance, tracking, threat evaluation and fire control against multiple threats, simultaneously and automatically, at all altitudes. The radars provide particularly outstanding performance in detection range, hooking speed and tracking continuity, including at low and very low levels.
Without changing its rotation rate (the fastest on the market) or mode of operation, the radar can be used to perform several surveillance tasks simultaneously, detecting even the smallest air and maritime threats. KRONOS can also provide the necessary missile guidance without the lost time and risks typical of traditional 3D, stacked beams radars.
KRONOS is now available in five versions, fixed and mobile, enabling it to fulfill all military requirements for surveillance and air defense, on land or at sea, using a single radar type. This allows the paring of top-class performance with lean maintenance, training and logistics synergies and heavily reduced electromagnetic chaos and frequency spectrum occupation at a national level.
All KRONOS versions are compact and equipped with extensive and highly automated C2 functionalities, Multiple Data Links and a full set of communication systems. Demonstrated in more than 25 land and naval installations world-wide, KRONOS radars allow high levels of networking, integration and interoperability with legacy systems, such as Command and Control Systems and SAM weapon systems.
“KRONOS combines the range performance and the endurance of a surveillance radar with the precision, speed and reliability of a fire control radar”, said Marco Buratti, Marketing & Sales Director of the Land & Naval Systems Division of Selex ES, adding: “The operational trials of the KRONOS GRAND Fixed, performed with our customers in a Middle Eastern desert in July last year, demonstrated unaltered performance and robustness even in the hottest climates. No doubt this radar can fulfill the objective to improve the effectiveness of air, land, coastal and naval defence anywhere in the world, significantly reducing procurement and operational costs. But more than that, it tightly links surveillance to air defence, covering all threats from low level supersonic cruise missiles to small UAVs or TBMs. Combined with SAM systems, KRONOS is the solution for any military force wishing to be fully in control of the airspace and counter aggressors, and also to deter them. It is a radar bound to make the news for a good while”.