KONGSBERG, Norway - Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace has selected Echodyne's MESA electronically scanned array radar technology for integration with its PROTECTOR RS4 and RS6 remote weapon stations, adding radar-based detection and tracking to the systems' counter-uncrewed aircraft system (C-UAS) capabilities.
Echodyne says the companies have spent multiple years integrating, testing, and demonstrating the radar-enabled capability. The companies did not identify the specific MESA radar configuration being integrated with the PROTECTOR systems or disclose a customer, contract value, or test location.
Kongsberg's PROTECTOR family already supports C-UAS operations by integrating radar and other sensors and effectors with its fire-control system. Kongsberg says its PROTECTOR C-UAS architecture can operate as a network, allowing systems to share the radar picture and integrate sensors and effectors on static, manned, or uncrewed platforms.
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Kinetic defense
The RS4 is a remote weapon station designed for small- and medium-caliber weapons, including machine guns and automatic grenade launchers, with options for anti-tank guided missiles or a coaxial machine gun. The system uses stabilized day and thermal sensors and a laser rangefinder. Kongsberg says the RS4 can be integrated with battlefield-management systems, weapon systems, sensor systems, defensive systems, and uncrewed vehicles or aircraft through its Collaborative Fire Control architecture.
The RS6 is an up-gunned remote weapon station designed for heavier tactical vehicles and combat vehicles. Its current configuration supports the Bushmaster XM914 30-millimeter cannon, M240 7.62-millimeter coaxial machine gun, and Javelin or Stinger missiles. Kongsberg also lists Counter-UAS capability among the RS6's applications.
Kongsberg says its PROTECTOR C-UAS capability combines the remote weapon system with mission-appropriate sensors and effectors. Its RS6 product material specifically identifies radar sensors, XM914 programmable airburst ammunition, and Stinger missiles as elements of a C-UAS configuration. Kongsberg says it validated the RS6 C-UAS capability through testing with the U.S. Marine Corps.
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Echodyne describes MESA as its proprietary metamaterials electronically scanned array technology. The company's current MESA portfolio includes the medium-range, pulse-Doppler EchoShield, short-range FMCW EchoGuard, and airborne EchoFlight radar systems. Echodyne has not publicly identified which MESA configuration it is integrating with the RS4 and RS6.
Echodyne's published specifications for EchoShield, its medium-range MESA radar, include operation from 15.4 to 16.6 GHz, a 130-degree azimuth by 90-degree elevation field of view, less than 0.5-degree track accuracy in azimuth and elevation, a 10-Hz track update rate, and tracking of more than 1,000 objects of interest. Echodyne lists the radar at 42.9 by 32.9 by 18.7 centimeters, 19.2 kilograms, and less than 250 watts of operating power. Those specifications apply to EchoShield and should not be attributed to the Kongsberg integration unless the companies identify EchoShield as the selected configuration.
The companies say the MESA radar supplies range, range-rate, bearing, and kinematic information to support detection, tracking, and targeting. The radar can cue the PROTECTOR fire-control system and refine tracks supplied by other search radars or sensors. The architecture is intended to support a distributed search, cue, track, and engage sequence in which networked sensors provide an initial air picture and the local radar provides additional track information for fire-control functions.
