Liberty Lake, Wa., 8 Jan. 2008.SprayCool, maker of advanced thermal management solutions, has been selected by Lockheed Martin to provide the electronics chassis for the U.S. Army's Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar (TRACER). The roughly $40 million contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin to incorporate low-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems into Predator class unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The TRACER program addresses the Army's critical need to identify hidden targets, facilities, and enemy
equipment such as small roadside targets and buried weapons caches. The system's design is predicated
on Lockheed Martin's foliage penetration (FOPEN) technology, which was developed specifically to
detect vehicles, buildings, and large metallic objects in broad areas of dense foliage, forested areas, and
wooded terrain.
"SprayCool enables us to develop a radar solution that is independent from an aircraft's environmental control
system," says Robert Robinson, Lockheed Martin's TRACER program manager. "This is extremely valuable for our team, and our Army customer, because we can now efficiently integrate the TRACER system into other low- and high-altitude manned and unmanned aircraft as requirements evolve."
As part of the program, SprayCool will provide Lockheed Martin with the Digital Receiver/Exciter (DRE) chassis,
one of the primary components of the dual-band synthetic aperture radar. Ultimately the radar will provide images to ground units in all-weather, day, or night conditions and incorporate a data link that allows
processed results to be down linked to ground stations immediately.
