The SAMPSON is a multi-function dual-face active electronically scanned array radar produced by BAE Systems Maritime. It is made out of high-carbon steel and is covered with an anti-radar paint. It is the fire control radar component of the Sea Viper naval air defence system. It was previously designated PAAMS(S) to distinguish it from the PAAMS system on the Franco-Italian Horizon Class. The SAMPSON multi function radar can detect all types of targets out to a distance of 400 km, and is capable of tracking hundreds of targets at any one time. Sea Viper uses this information to assess and command target priorities, and calculate the optimum launch time for its Aster missiles.
Introduction
SAMPSON
SAMPSON | Introduction
The SAMPSON multi function radar can detect all types of targets out to a distance of 400 km, and is capable of tracking hundreds of targets at any one time. It is a multi-function dual-face active electronically scanned array radar produced by BAE Systems Maritime. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. The S1850M is a long range radar with a digital antenna array for wide area search in elevation.
what was one of the provisions of the petition of right (1628)
user
No person should be forced to provide a gift, loan or tax without an Act of Parliament.
assistant
what does the term "petition of right" refer to?
user
It is an English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state.
assistant
who formulated it?
user
Charles I
assistant
what kinds of provisions does it have?
user
No person should be forced to provide a gift, loan or tax without an Act of Parliament. No free individual should be imprisoned or detained unless a cause has been shown. Soldiers or members of the Royal Navy should not be billeted in private houses without the free consent of the owner.
assistant
which period marked the age of sail for the navy mentioned above?
user
During the reign of Henry VIII.
assistant
do they have an escort fleet?
user
Yes, there are six Type 45 destroyers and 13 Type 23 frigates in active service.
assistant
what is type 45?
user
It is also known as the D or "Daring" class. It is a class of six guided missile destroyers built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy.
assistant
did its engine face any trouble?
user
On occasion there have been near-complete power generation failures, temporarily disabling propulsion, power generation for weapons, navigational systems and other purposes, leaving the ships vulnerable to "total electric failure".
assistant
how strong was their air defense?
user
The Royal Navy describes the destroyers' mission as being "to shield the Fleet from air attack". It is equipped with the Sea Viper air-defence system utilizing the SAMPSON active electronically scanned array multi-function radar and the S1850M long-range radar. PAAMS is able to track over 2,000 targets and simultaneously control and coordinate multiple missiles in the air at once, allowing a large number of tracks to be intercepted and destroyed at any given time.
assistant
how does the first mentioned radar function?
user
The SAMPSON is a multi-function dual-face active electronically scanned array radar produced by BAE Systems Maritime. It is made out of high-carbon steel and is covered with an anti-radar paint. It is the fire control radar component of the Sea Viper naval air defence system. It was previously designated PAAMS(S) to distinguish it from the PAAMS system on the Franco-Italian Horizon Class. The SAMPSON multi function radar can detect all types of targets out to a distance of 400 km, and is capable of tracking hundreds of targets at any one time. Sea Viper uses this information to assess and command target priorities, and calculate the optimum launch time for its Aster missiles.
SAMPSON | Introduction
The first successful airborne microwave radar. Used on Navy Swordfish and Barracuda aircraft, and many RAF Coastal Command aircraft. High-resolution centimetric radar could detect even small objects, such as the periscope or snorkel of a submerged submarine, making it a highly efficient tool for ASW. The Mk XI was a further development exclusively for the Fleet Air Arm.
List of World War II British naval radar | ASV III
While testing the AI radars near Bawdsey Manor, Bowen's team noticed the radar generated strong returns from ships and docks. This was due to the vertical sides of the objects, which formed excellent partial corner reflectors, allowing detection at several miles range. The team focussed on this application for much of 1938. The Air-Surface Vessel Mark I, using electronics similar to those of the AI sets, was the first aircraft-carried radar to enter service, in early 1940. It was quickly replaced by the improved Mark II, which included side-scanning antennas that allowed the aircraft to sweep twice the area in a single pass.
Radar in World War II | Air-Surface Vessel
This work led to the Airborne Interception Mk. IV, the first production air-to-air radar system. Mk. IV entered service in July 1940 and reached widespread availability on the Bristol Beaufighter by early 1941. The Mk. IV helped end the Blitz, the "Luftwaffe"'s night bombing campaign of late 1940 and early 1941. Starting with the AI Mk. VII, AI moved to microwave frequencies using the cavity magnetron, greatly improving performance while reducing size and weight. This gave the UK an enormous lead over their counterparts in the "Luftwaffe", an advantage that was to exist for the remainder of World War II.
Airborne Interception radar | Introduction
Conventional radars, consisting of a rotating transmitter and sensor, have limited power, are vulnerable to enemy jamming and perform only one function - with separate units therefore required for surveillance, tracking and targeting. As an active array, SAMPSON uses software to shape and direct its beam allowing several functions to be carried out at once and, through adaptive waveform control, is virtually immune to enemy jamming. Active arrays have both longer range and higher accuracy than conventional radars. The beam-directing software uses sophisticated algorithms to schedule looks so that the potentially hundreds of active tracks are maintained with maximum accuracy.
SAMPSON | Operation
Secondary roles were area and coastal surveillance, helicopter and light aircraft control, meteor balloon tracking and rapid survey. It could also observe and adjust ground and airburst artillery fire and high angle fire. In British service each radar held a spare main electronic unit, spare generator and spare displays. The radar includes an integral simulator for operator training and practice and built-in test functionality.
Cymbeline (radar) | Description
The Royal Navy's first successful RDF was the "Type 79Y Surface Warning", tested at sea in early 1938. John D. S. Rawlinson was the project director. This 43-MHz (7-m), 70-kW set used fixed transmitting and receiving antennas and had a range of 30 to 50 miles, depending on the antenna heights. By 1940, this became the "Type 281", increased in frequency to 85 MHz (3.5 m) and power to between 350 and 1,000 kW, depending on the pulse width. With steerable antennas, it was also used for Gun Control. This was first used in combat in March 1941 with considerable success.
Radar in World War II | Surface Warning/Gun Control
The Royal Navy learned of Robert Watson-Watt's radar experiments in 1935 and began exploring the use of radar for naval uses very quickly. In contrast to the Air Ministry, which had no formal electronics establishment at the time, the Navy's Experimental Department in Portsmouth was a powerhouse in electronics design and was able to quickly develop a series of radars for naval use. In 1938, their Type 79 radar was the first naval radar to enter service. At the time, the only high-power radio frequency electronics operated in the shortwave bands, with wavelengths measured in metres. Existing valves (vacuum tubes) could operate at an absolute maximum of 600 MHz (50 cm wavelength), but operation anywhere near this range resulted in very low efficiency and output power.
Type 271 radar | Background
The AI Mk. IV radar was the first operational airborne interception radar, first used experimentally in April 1940, and entering widespread service in early 1941. These systems used a set of four receiver antennas that were arranged so they were most sensitive in different directions; two were sensitive above or below the aircraft, and the other two to the left and right. The output from these antennas was rapidly switched back and forth on the display, producing two "blips" for any given target, with the length of the blip indicating the strength of the signal in that direction. By comparing the length of the blips from, say, the upper and lower antennas, the operator could determine if the target was above or below their fighter.
Serrate radar detector | Basic concept
The Type 282, 282M, 285, and 285M radars used a mechanical ranging panel that used a mechanical cursor placed over the ranging display, to estimate range and automatically transmitted the calculated range to either the HACS or FKC fire control computer. Type 285 used Ranging Panel L12 and this also featured range rate estimation with power follow up so that the ranging panel would continue to transmit the correct range without operator intervention as long as the target maintained a steady course at a constant speed.
List of World War II British naval radar | Mechanical Ranging Panel
Within a short time, he was authorized to set up a development laboratory for this in the NRC Radio Section. Its first project was the development of s surface-warning radar system for the Royal Canadian Navy. Using commercial components and with essentially no further assistance from Great Britain, a system was developed to protect the entrance to the Halifax Harbour, called Night Watchman, tested in June 1940. This was followed by a ship-borne system designated Surface Warning 1st Canadian (SW1C) completed in May 1941. In the summer of 1940, Great Britain was at the limit of production capability and desperately needed allies for her war effort.
John Tasker Henderson | Second World War
The SCR-268 (for "Signal Corps Radio no. 268") was the United States Army's first radar system. Introduced in 1940, it was developed to provide accurate aiming information for antiaircraft artillery and was also used for gun laying systems and directing searchlights against aircraft. The radar was widely utilized by both Army and Marine Corps air defense and early warning units during World War II. By the end of World War II the system was already considered out of date, having been replaced by the much smaller and more accurate SCR-584 microwave-based system.
SCR-268 radar | Introduction
Robert Morris Page was assigned by Taylor to implement Young's suggestion. Page designed a transmitter operating at 60 MHz and pulsed 10 μs in duration and 90 μs between pulses. In December 1934, the apparatus was used to detect a plane at a distance of one mile (1.6 km) flying up and down the Potomac. Although the detection range was small and the indications on the oscilloscope monitor were almost indistinct, it demonstrated the basic concept of a pulsed radar system. Based on this, Page, Taylor, and Young are usually credited with building and demonstrating the world's first true radar.
History of radar | United States Navy
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Bowen's unit was moved to St Athan. One of the first things that Bowen did there was to try to detect a submarine by radar. By then, the cavity magnetron had been improved by John Randall and Harry Boot, making airborne radar a powerful tool. By December 1940, operational aircraft were able to detect submarines at up to 15 miles range. This technology had a major effect on winning the Battle of the Atlantic and eventually enabled forces to be built up by sea for the invasion of Europe. In April 1941, RAF Coastal Command was operating anti-submarine patrols with about 110 aircraft fitted with radar.
Edward George Bowen | Second World War
H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed for the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command during World War II to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing. This allowed attacks outside the range of the various radio navigation aids like Gee or Oboe, which were limited to about . It was also widely used as a general navigation system, allowing landmarks to be identified at long range. In March 1941, experiments with an early Airborne Interception radar based on the 9.1 cm S band cavity magnetron revealed that different objects have very different radar signatures; water, open land and built-up areas of cities and towns all produced distinct returns.
H2S (radar) | Introduction
Requiring a suitable receiver for such studies, he told the "new boy" Arnold Frederic Wilkins to conduct an extensive review of available shortwave units. Wilkins would select a General Post Office model after noting its manual's description of a "fading" effect (the common term for interference at the time) when aircraft flew overhead.
Radar | First experiments
Rawnsley initially served as an air-gunner but retrained to become a navigator/radar operator and was sent to No. 604 Squadron RAF flying Beaufighters. Using the new airborne interception (AI) equipment (an early form of airborne radar). Using this tracking device at night, Rawnsley was able to guide Cunningham onto targets. Their first confirmed "kill" came on the night of 19 – 20 November 1940, when they downed a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber over Oxfordshire. On 4 April 1941 he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) to which he added a Bar on 23 May of the same year.
Jimmy Rawnsley | Second World War
The first successful Air to Surface Vessel radar (ASV), from early 1940. ASV II was a re-packaged ASV I but otherwise similar. ASV II radar allowed RN Swordfish from the carriers and to locate and attack the German battleship in May 1941.
List of World War II British naval radar | ASV II
Metric air warning set with separate Tx / Rx antennas. Type 281B had combined Tx / Rx antenna. First fitted to then This set also had a secondary surface search function along with aerial and surface gunnery capability and used a Precision Ranging Panel. The Type 281 ranging system allowed the user to select either a 2000yd to 14000yd or a 2000yd to 25000yd range display with range accuracies of 50 or 75yds RMS, respectively. Aerial target ranges were passed directly to the HACS table (fire control computer).
List of World War II British naval radar | <a href="Type%20281%20radar">Type 281</a>
This produced a display indicating the direction to the German aircraft, but not the range. When the operator felt the range to be suitable, the display was reconnected to the Mk. IV's own electronics to provide both ranging and directional information during the last moments of the attack. Serrate operations began by No. 141 Squadron RAF on the night of 7 September 1943. 179 operational sorties yielded 14 claimed fighters shot down, for 3 losses. After that point, the Luftwaffe realized what was happening and quickly introduced new versions of their radars working on different frequencies. Unlike the earlier sets, which just happened to operate on frequencies very close to the British radars, the new sets required entirely new detectors, which took some time to develop.
Serrate radar detector | Introduction
By July 1940, samples of all of these devices had arrived at the TRE's experimental shops, along with more powerful magnetrons working between 5 and 10 kW. Herbert Skinner cobbled together the various parts on a table to produce the first working microwave radar. This used the updated NT98 magnetron that produced 5 kW of power. They demonstrated it by having someone ride a bicycle in front of the device while holding a metal plate acting as a reflector. This test demonstrated the new radar's ability to pick up targets even when they were very close to the horizon, something previous designs could not do.
Type 271 radar | Magnetron
This makes it particularly difficult to swamp PAAMS during a saturation attack, even if the attacking elements are supersonic. The US Naval War College has suggested that the SAMPSON radar is capable of tracking 1,000 objects the size of a cricket ball travelling at three times the speed of sound (Mach 3), emphasising the system's capabilities against high performance stealth targets. A core component of PAAMS is the Aster missile, comprising Aster 15 and Aster 30. MBDA describe Aster as a "hit-to-kill" anti-missile missile capable of intercepting all types of high performance air threats at a maximum range of 120 km.
Type 45 destroyer | Advanced air-defence
In February 1940, Great Britain developed the resonant-cavity magnetron, capable of producing microwave power in the kilowatt range, opening the path to second-generation radar systems.
Radar in World War II | Introduction
This detection and location method known today as radar, combined with a command and control system would act as a Force multiplier by allowing friendly fighters to know the exact location of enemy bombers and converge on them. On 26 February a successful demonstration of radar was given at Daventry, Northamptonshire. By the end of 1935 a system with a detection and location range of 100 km had been established, and plans were made in December to set up five fixed radar stations covering London airspace. One of these stations was to be located on the coast near Orford Ness, and Bawdsey Manor Research Station was set up there to become the main centre for all radar research.
Leonard George Chapman | Context of Chapman's work
In the fall of 1942, the Kriegsmarine began to equip its U Boats with radar receivers capable of detecting the Royal Air Force's long wave radars used for Air-to-Surface Vessel radar. This enabled the subs to dive, avoiding detection while on the surface. RAF's Coastal Command requested reinforcements from the AAFin the form of B-24s equipped with radars operating in the microwave band. In response, the squadron's air echelon was dispatched to RAF St Eval, England on 10 November to support Coastal Command. On arrival in England, it was attached to VIII Bomber Command for operations. Later that month, it was redesignated the 1st Antisubmarine Squadron.
1st Antisubmarine Squadron | World War II
Poor weather delayed "Adlertag" ("Eagle Day") until 13 August 1940. On 12 August, the first attempt was made to blind the Dowding system, when aircraft from the specialist fighter-bomber unit "Erprobungsgruppe" 210 attacked four radar stations. Three were briefly taken off the air but were back working within six hours. The raids appeared to show that British radars were difficult to knock out. The failure to mount follow-up attacks allowed the RAF to get the stations back on the air, and the Luftwaffe neglected strikes on the supporting infrastructure, such as phone lines and power stations, which could have rendered the radars useless, even if the towers themselves (which were very difficult to destroy) remained intact.
Battle of Britain | Assault on RAF: radar and airfields
The critical problem of submarine detection required RDF systems operating at higher frequencies than the existing sets because of a submarine's smaller physical size than most other vessels. When the first cavity magnetron was delivered to the TRE, a demonstration breadboard was built and demonstrated to the Admiralty. In early November 1940, a team from Portsmouth under S. E. A. Landale was set up to develop a 10-cm surface-warning set for shipboard use. In December, an experimental apparatus tracked a surfaced submarine at 13 miles range. At Portsmouth, the team continued development, fitting antennas behind cylindrical parabolas (called "cheese" antennas) to generate a narrow beam that maintained contact as the ship rolled.
Radar in World War II | Microwave Warning/Fire Control
In the late 1960s it became a Master Comprehensive Radar Station which eventually closed in 1974. The part of the site used for training was converted in the 1980s to form the new War HQ for RAF Support Command. With the ending of the Cold War this function ceased in 1991 and the site returned to training until the late 1990s when it was rebuilt to become the 1st experimental HQ of the new CCIS Electronic Warfare System. This function left the site in 2000–01. In 2003 Defence Archives moved to the site and in 2004 the first public exhibition opened.
Holmpton | RAF Holmpton
Designated Type 271 radar, the set was tested in March 1941, detecting the periscope of a submerged submarine at almost a mile. The set was deployed in August 1941, just 12 months after the first apparatus was demonstrated. On November 16, the first German submarine was sunk after being detected by a Type 271. The initial Type 271 primarily found service on smaller vessels. At ASE Witley, this set was modified to become Type 272 and Type 273 for larger vessels. Using larger reflectors, the Type 273 also effectively detected low-flying aircraft, with a range up to 30 miles. This was the first Royal Navy radar with a plan-position indicator.
Radar in World War II | Microwave Warning/Fire Control
By the autumn of 1941 it was clear the demand for the new radars was far beyond their projected production rates. In addition to the demand for naval ships, the British Army was adopting them for coastal defense purposes and the Air Ministry was interested in using them for short-range air traffic control and early warning. The initial order of 150 units with Allen West was increased to 350. In order to speed production, Metropolitan-Vickers was contracted to redesign the electronics units to make them easier to manufacture. The original system consisted of three large cabinets in two vertical stacks.
Type 271 radar | P models
The first project of this "Army Cell" was a ranging system for anti-aircraft artillery, but they soon added the Coast Defence radars and began work on the proximity fuse. At the outbreak of the war in 1939, the location of Bawdsey, right on the east coast, was considered far too exposed to attack. The Air Ministry team quickly moved to Dundee in Scotland, where the former Air Ministry Experimental Station became the Air Ministry Research Establishment (AMRE). The Army group moved to Christchurch, outside Bournemouth, becoming the Air Defence Experimental Establishment (ADEE). The facilities in Dundee proved far too small and isolated, and in May 1940 they moved again, this time to Worth Matravers on the south coast of England, also a short distance from Bournemouth.
Royal Radar Establishment | Administrative history
Starting in 1949, the British Army began development of a new tactical control radar that would provide early warning and putting-on information for sixteen dispersed batteries of anti-aircraft artillery spread over a city-wide area. This presented the same sort of problem as the Navy faced with its dispersed destroyers; the AA guns had small radars on-site, but these did not provide a long-range picture of the battle as a whole. They learned of the CDS and became interested in adapting it for the new radar. During development, in 1953 the role of air defence over the UK passed from the Army to the Royal Air Force, who took up development and renamed the radar AMES Type 82.
Comprehensive Display System | British Army and RAF
The secondary radar used in the system was the Cossor SSR750. Each primary radar had an associated secondary radar, at RAF Staxton Wold and RAF Neatishead there was an additional "freestanding" SSR. Secondary Radar information was associated with the primary (search) radar and presented on the same display. This gave operators a range of information that far exceeded the traditional, 'range and direction". The secondary radar was a dual military and civil system that worked by interrogating a transponder on board the aircraft, receiving and translating a coded reply. Decoding SSR signals was carried out at L1 with the decoders supplied by Elliott Automation.
Linesman/Mediator | Secondary radar
The Royal Air Force's first Airborne Intercept radars operated in the 1.5 meter band and featured antennas similar to their later German counterparts. However, the introduction of the cavity magnetron in 1940 changed things dramatically. The magnetron efficiently generated microwaves from a device the size of a coffee tin, lowering operational wavelengths from the several-meter range to less than 10 centimeters. This reduced the antenna size to a few centimeters. Instead of simply using a smaller Yagi antenna, the system was paired with a new parabolic dish which allowed for conical scanning. The result was a small, lightweight, powerful, long range and easy to read radar.
FuG 240 Berlin | Rotterdam Device
Black Buck Five was flown by McDougall with Montgomery reprising his role flying the reserve aircraft. This was the first completed anti-radar mission equipped with Shrike missiles. The main target was a Westinghouse AN/TPS-43 long-range 3D radar that the Argentine Air Force deployed during April to guard the airspace surrounding the Falkland Islands. The warning that this radar gave enabled the Argentine defenders to conceal mobile Exocet missile launchers. It also gave Argentine Hercules transports the warning they needed to continue using the runway at Stanley. An attack on the radar with Shrike missiles could only succeed if the targeted radar continued transmitting until struck, so a Sea Harrier raid was staged to coincide with the attack to force the defenders to turn on the radar.
Operation Black Buck | Black Buck Five
For a variety of reasons, the 1.5 m wavelength of the radar system worked better over water than land, and the large size and flat vertical sides of the ships made excellent radar targets. Production quality sets were available in 1939 and entered operational service in early 1940, becoming the first radar system to be mounted on an aircraft in a combat setting. A somewhat improved version, Mark II, followed in 1941, which saw tens of thousands of units produced in the UK, Canada, US and Australia. These designs had a relatively long minimum range, meaning the submarine targets disappeared from the display just as the aircraft was readying for the attack.
Air-to-Surface Vessel radar | Mark I and II
Similarly, although developed for detecting aircraft, it saw extensive service in anti-submarine and maritime patrol roles and was one of the first radars to be used in researching extreme weather like hurricanes by agencies like the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA). As well as the United States, the radar was used by a large number of services in other countries, including the French Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF), Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Early versions of the radar could see a low-flying aircraft at and a ship at . This was improved, so that later versions had a range against aerial targets of .
AN/APS-20 | Introduction
The primary radars of RAF Fylingdales are active electronically scanned array (AESA) phased array radars, mounted on each face of a truncated tetrahedron, typically referred to as the "pyramid" or the SSPAR (Solid State Phased Array). This makes Fylingdales unique amongst its peers in that it covers a full 360 degrees. Each of the three arrays is across and contains around 2560 transmit/receive modules; mean power output is about , with a tracking range of .
RAF Fylingdales | Systems
The British Army's first radars were intended to measure the distance to aircraft as an aiming aid for anti-aircraft artillery. In the 1930s, measuring the angle to the target was easily accomplished with optical instruments, but rangefinding remained a time-consuming and inaccurate process. This led to the creation of the GL Mk. I radar which was introduced in 1939. It quickly became clear that a range-only system was wasting considerable utility inherent to the design. Since the radar's signal spread over about 20 degrees, it observed a wide area of the sky and was able to detect targets before the crews on the optical instruments could.
Radar, Anti-Aircraft No. 3 Mk. 7 | GL Mk. I & II
The radar was the first HMV (Aust) produced radar. The radar site necessitated the need to build a high voltage power line to provide electricity to power the rotating radar antennae. The radar station was responsible for plotting flight movements from RAAF Base Williamtown, plus all flight movements along the coast in the vicinity and reporting to No. 2 Fighter Sector HQ. The radar was made non-operational on 1 September 1945 and was disbanded on 21 January 1947. After World War II, the radar antennae was left on the headland until it was knocked over during a bad storm. The collapsed radar tower was recovered by the RAAF in 1993 from the top of Tomaree Head.
No. 20 Radar Station RAAF | Overview
Bowen's job was to assemble a transmitter, managing quickly to raise the pulse-power to over 100 kilowatts. The first detection of an aircraft was made on 17 June 1935 at a range of 17 miles. By early 1936 after many improvements, aircraft were being detected at ranges of up to 100 miles. This caused work to be started on a chain of radar stations (Chain Home or CH), initially just covering the approaches to London. The team at Orfordness was enlarged as a result, and in March 1936 a new headquarters was acquired at Bawdsey Manor.
Edward George Bowen | Ground-based radar
The tests succeeded, and the site became operational in 1962 with the activation of AN/FPS-7C search radar and the AN/FPS-6 and AN/FPS-26 height-finder radars as the United States' first nuclear-powered radars. The radar squadron provided information to the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction, altitude, and speed, and to evaluate whether aircraft were friendly or hostile. The radars were operated until 1968 when Air Defense Command closed the station as part of a draw down of assets and budget reductions. The PM-1 plant was operated by Air Force, Army and Navy personnel, and it produced electricity for 4,101 hours without incident.
Sundance Air Force Station | History
Even the earliest radar systems included a system to highlight a single selected target for further analysis. For instance, 1939's Gun-Laying Mark I, the British Army's first operational radar, used an on-screen cursor known as the "strobe" to highlight a single target. This worked by filtering out, or "gating", signals that were not within the strobe's short time period, typically a few microseconds, corresponding to a range of a few hundred meters. The signal within the strobe's window was then sent to secondary displays where two operators would determine the azimuth and elevation of that single target, by keeping its "blip" centered in their displays.
Range gate pull-off | Range gates and strobing
The GADA radar on Sapper Hill was the first to detect the Black Buck raid of 1 May. Unsure of its position after such a long flight at low level over water, the commander (Flt Lt Martin Withers) of Vulcan bomber XM607 briefly climbed to gain a radar fix from the mountains east of Stanley. In performing this manoeuvre, his aircraft was briefly detected by the crew of the AN/TPS-44 surveillance radar before descending back to low-level. Initially, the crew of the radar were uncertain if the aircraft they had detected was hostile, leading to delays in alerting the air defence system.
GADA 601 | 1st May: Opening actions
This system functioned as an early version of the modern anti-ballistic missile defence model. Statistical analysis was also employed to aid in the computation of the exact position of the enemy aircraft and to smooth the data acquired from the target due to signal fluctuations and noise effects.
Hendrik Wade Bode | First wireless feedback loop and robot weapons
Late in 1957, the Royal Aircraft Establishment began work with both Bristol Aerospace and Ferranti for alternatives to the EE/Marconi designs. Bristol responded in early 1958 with the first definitive design for such a system. This would use the Red Duster Series 2 Mark 2, later to be known as Bloodhound Mk. 3, combined with the Type 85 radar for early warning, Type 86 for terminal tracking and FPS-16 for midcourse tracking. In action, the Type 85 would detect the missile while it was launching, and then cue one of the UK-based FPS-16's onto it. These radars would track the booster as it launched, determining the trajectory and probable impact point.
Violet Friend | Violet Friend
A series of dry cell batteries lining the aircraft floor powered the receiver, providing high voltage for the CRT through an ignition coil taken from a Ford. When the system took to the air for the first time in the autumn of 1936, it immediately detected aircraft flying in the circuit at Martlesham, away, in spite of the crudity of the installation. Further tests were just as successful, with the range pushed out to .
AI Mk. IV radar | RDF 1.5
Additionally, the aircraft has other mission capabilities like identification friend or foe (IFF), electronic and communication support measures, C-band line-of-sight and Ku-band SATCOM datalinks, etc., similar to those on the AWACS and CAEW systems. The important modes of operation of the primary radar system are the surface surveillance and the air surveillance. The sensor has the abilities to search, track-while-scan, priority tracking, high performance tracking, etc. In priority tracking, the targets will be placed in full track mode even if these cross the primary surveillance area. In high performance tracking, additional measurements will be made to improve the tracking accuracy.
DRDO AEW&amp;CS | Design
After the BTL developed the "FA", the first fire-control radar for the U.S. Navy, it improved this with the "FC" (for use against surface targets) and "FD" (for directing anti-aircraft weapons). A few of these 60 cm (750 MHz) sets began service in the fall of 1941. They were later designated "Mark 3" and "Mark 4", respectively. About 125 Mark 3 and 375 Mark 4 sets were produced.
Radar in World War II | P-Band fire-control
By the middle of 1930, the Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) command of the Royal Air Force was planning its response to the threat of air attack. This involved the construction of a large number of acoustic mirrors to provide early warning, along with a network of observer stations that would soon be arranged into the Royal Observer Corps (ROC). The system would provide defence around the London area only, starting on the coast from Suffolk to Sussex with a thin belt of anti-aircraft artillery, a fighter operating area inland, and a second group of guns in or near the city.
Pip-squeak | Before radar
Main armament anti-aircraft barrage fire control set fitted to "barrage director" for cruiser and battleship guns. This set used a Precision Ranging Panel and was used to fire the guns automatically using the Automatic Barrage Unit.
List of World War II British naval radar | Type 283
Primary radar operation is based on the principle of echolocation. Electromagnetic pulses of high power emitted by the radar antenna are converted into a narrow wavefront which propagates at the speed of light (300 000 000 m/s). This is reflected by the aircraft and then picked up again by the rotating antenna on its own axis. A primary radar detects all aircraft without selection, regardless of whether or not they possess a transponder. The operator hears the echoes from any reflection. Therefore, it performs transmission/listening continuously, which covers the space 360 °. The primary radar functions, therefore, results in detection and measurements of position if there is the presence of a target by the recognition of the useful signal.
Primary radar | Description
In 1964 the Air Force added the first AN/FPS-79 tracking radar, with an 84-foot parabolic antenna, to provide accurate metric data on both missiles and satellites. If a new space object was sensed by the detection radar's fans, then the tracking radar could be oriented to achieve lock-on and tracking of the object. The radars were operated by the 6935th Radio Squadron, Mobile of USAF Security Service until 1964, when responsibility for the radars was transferred to Air Defense Command (ADC).
19th Space Operations Squadron | Mission
The first step in this campaign was a British Army operation, Operation Biting, to steal a Würzburg radar set on 27/28 February 1942. The British removed components and developed counter-measures. The Germans responded by fortifying all radar sets, which only made them more visible for RAF aerial reconnaissance. The British also began the occasional jamming of Freya radar sets. The Germans did not realise this was happening until September 1942. German forces also used offensive jamming of British radar, to enable fighter-bomber operations over England. The British described them as a "real menace". Radar-jamming, counter-measures and other innovations escalated from that point onward.
Operation Donnerkeil | British failures
The RN moved quickly to add true tachometric target motion prediction and radar ranging to the HACS by mid 1941. The RN was the first navy to adopt dedicated FC AA radars. However the system, in common with all World War II-era mechanical AA fire control system still had severe limitations as even the highly advanced United States Navy (USN) Mk 37 system in 1944 needed an average of 1,000 rounds of ammunition fired per kill. In 1940 the Gyro Rate Unit (GRU) was added to the HACS system, an analogue computer capable of directly calculating target speed and direction, converting the HACS into a tachymetric system.
HACS | Tachometric and radar additions
The first AESA radar employed on an operational warship was the Japanese OPS-24 manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric introduced on the JDS Hamagiri (DD-155), the first ship of the latter batch of the Asagiri-class destroyer, launched in 1988.
Active electronically scanned array | Surface systems (land, maritime)
The radar signal was locked on target and its data was wirelessly transmitted to a ground receiver that was connected to the artillery servomechanism feedback control system, causing the servo to accurately modify its angular position and maintain it for an optimum amount of time, long enough to fire at the calculated (predicted) coordinates of the target and thus successfully track the target. The prediction of the coordinates was the function of Director T-10, a form of electrical computer so named because it was used to direct the positioning of the gun with respect to the airborne target. It also calculated the target average velocity based on the location information provided by the radar and predicted the future target location based on its assumed flightpath equation, usually a linear function of time.
Hendrik Wade Bode | First wireless feedback loop and robot weapons
For the Airborne Intercept radar, the Rad Lab 10 cm breadboard set was fitted with a parabolic antenna having azimuth and elevation scanning capabilities. Cathode-ray tube indicators and appropriate controls were also added. Edwin McMillan was primarily responsible for building and testing the engineering set. This was first flight-tested near the end of March 1941, giving target returns at up to five miles distance and without ground clutter, a primary advantage of microwave radar. Designated "SCR-520", this was America's first microwave radar. It saw limited service on some larger patrol aircraft, but was too heavy for fighter aircraft. Improved as the much lighter "SCR-720", thousands of these sets were manufactured and used extensively by both the U.S.
Radar in World War II | S-Band airborne
Though these may be considered the most significant, many other items were also transported, including designs for rockets, superchargers, gunsights and submarine detection devices. He returned to Britain in December 1940. Soon after his return, Cockcroft was appointed Chief Superintendent of the Air Defence Research Development Establishment (ADRDE) at Christchurch, Hampshire. His focus was on the use of radar for shooting down enemy aircraft. The GL Mk. III radar was developed as a target tracking and predicting radar, but by 1942 the SCR-584 radar developed for the same purpose in the United States became available, and Cockcroft recommended that it be acquired under Lend-Lease.
John Cockcroft | Second World War
First X band naval radar. Used on small vessels for target indication and navigation.
List of World War II British naval radar | Type 268
The first development was a continuous-wave apparatus using Doppler-beat interference for detection. Kühnhold then shifted the GEMA work to a pulse-modulated system. Using a 50 cm (600 MHz) magnetron from Philips, their first transmitter was modulated with 2-μs pulses at a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 2000 Hz. The transmitting antenna was an array of 10 pairs of dipoles with a reflecting mesh, and the receiving antenna had three pairs of dipoles and incorporated lobe switching. The wide-band regenerative receiver used an RCA 955 acorn triode. A blocking device (a duplexer), shut the receiver input when the transmitter pulsed. A Braun tube was used for displaying the range.
Radar in World War II | Germany
During his time with AMRE, Duckworth was involved in the enhancement of the British air defence radar network, helping to develop and install new radar transmitters capable of detecting low-flying enemy aircraft. Later in the war, when British naval convoys came under attack from German bombers, Duckworth worked on developing radar systems for merchant shipping, and also helped create a multi-station ground-based radar interception system for the Royal Air Force. When Germany began using V-1 flying bombs against British cities in 1944, Duckworth helped improve the RAF's radar cover to allow fighter aircraft to intercept the fast-moving V-1s.
John Duckworth (physicist) | Wartime radar work
The Royal Navy's Type 901 X-band radar was used as the beam-riding command guidance system for the Seaslug missile system, which was the first such system used by the Royal Navy. Designed by the Admiralty Surface Radar Establishment at Portsdown, the project was passed to Marconi Systems for manufacture.
Type 901 radar | Introduction
Although accurate and simple to use, the original Rapier system clearly suffered from a lack of all-weather capability. To address this need, BAC started work on a separate radar guidance unit, primarily to improve foreign sales. This led to the introduction of the Marconi DN 181 "Blindfire" radar in 1970, the first examples being sold to the Iranian Army in 1973. The British Army did not purchase the Blindfire system until 1979, entering service with Rapier "Field Standard A" (FSA). The RAF Regiment had 27 Squadron operational with Blindfire at RAF Leuchars by 1979, and was in the process of bringing all the RAF Regiment GBAD (Ground Based Air Defence) Squadrons into line.
Rapier (missile) | Blindfire radar, FSA
In February 1937, a developmental unit detected an aircraft at a range of 60 miles (96 km). The Air Ministry also adopted this system as a mobile auxiliary to the CH system.
History of radar | British Army
Shepherds Hill Radar Station was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) radar station that was an experimental unit, which was unnumbered, which formed at Shepherds Hill, Newcastle, New South Wales atop an Australian Army gun emplacement observation post on 10 January 1942. Shepherd's Hill RAAF Radar Site became the RAAF's first operational air-warning radar. The radar was a British CD/CHL unit. The radar operated from this location until 19 April 1942. After the radar was removed the buildings were handed over to the Australian Army for shore defence duties. The radar unit was moved to Bombi in New South Wales on 1 April 1942 and became No.
Shepherds Hill Radar Station RAAF | Introduction
The AN/FPS-7 Radar was a Long Range Search Radar used by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command. In the mid-1950s General Electric developed a radar with a search altitude of 100,000 feet and a range of 270 miles. This radar was significant in that it was the first stacked-beam radar to enter into production in the United States. The antenna was fed signals from several feed horns arranged in a vertical stack, producing a series of horizontal beams separated vertically in space. By comparing the returns from the different feeds, altitude information could be determined without the need for a separate height-finder radar.
General Electric AN/FPS-7 Radar | Introduction
On 4 September, the system was used to detect Royal Navy ships on manoeuvres in almost complete overcast. The weather was so bad they had to use the radar pattern from local sea-side cliffs to navigate home. Albert Percival Rowe of the Tizard Committee later commented that "This, had they known, was the writing on the wall for the German Submarine Service."
Air-to-Surface Vessel radar | Initial concept
However, in the hands of skilled crews, later versions in 1941 were remarkably effective, and in the heavy night raids of 1941 radar-equipped fighters were the main weapon of air defence. In May 1941, over 100 enemy aircraft were shot down at night using radar, compared with 30 by anti-aircraft guns.
Edward George Bowen | Second World War
They say the radar has a range of 6,000 km with targets between 0.1–0.12m. It can track 20 objects at the same time and can cope with four jamming sources. The designer, Viktor Ivantsov, was awarded the title "Hero of Labour" for his work on the Daryal. The first Daryal type radar was an active electronically scanned array built at Olenegorsk in 1977. It was the receiver building only and was called a Daugava rather than a Daryal. It used the transmitter of the adjacent Dnestr-M radar. Following this two Daryal radars were constructed in Pechora (1983) and Qabala (1985).
Daryal radar | Introduction
Radar target assignment (ZZR) requires an oral radio or telephone transmission to the Parallaxcomputer operator, who inputs the search data into the device. Under the control of this analog computer the fire-control radar tracks the target, the computer continuously calculates a firing solution, and lays and fires the guns by remote control. One Argentine Air Force Super Fledermaus system was captured by the British around Port Stanley Airport in 1982. The Super Fledermaus system was used in the first prototype of the Flakpanzer Gepard.
Super Fledermaus | Function
IV's own transmissions. However, the signal no longer had to travel from the RAF fighter and back again; instead, the signals would only have to travel from the German aircraft to the fighter. According to the radar equation this makes the system eight times as sensitive, and the system displayed its ability to track enemy fighters at ranges as great as . Homing on the enemy's broadcasts meant that there was no accurate way to calculate the range to the target; radar ranging measurements are based on timing the delay between broadcast and reception, and there was no way to know when the enemy's signal was originally broadcast.
AI Mk. IV radar | Serrate
In 1931, at the Woolwich Research Station of the Army's Signals Experimental Establishment (SEE), W. A. S. Butement and P. E. Pollard had examined pulsed 600 MHz (50-cm) signals for detection of ships. Although they prepared a memorandum on this subject and performed preliminary experiments, for undefined reasons the War Office did not give it consideration. As the Air Ministry's work on RDF progressed, Colonel Peter Worlledge of the Royal Engineer and Signals Board met with Watson Watt and was briefed on the RDF equipment and techniques being developed at Orfordness. His report, “The Proposed Method of Aeroplane Detection and Its Prospects”, led the SEE to set up an “Army Cell” at Bawdsey in October 1936.
History of radar | British Army
Following delays and complications the UK withdrew and started its own Type 45 programme. The Type 45 destroyers use the SAMPSON radar with the PAAMS missile system, which was also developed for the Horizon frigates (French and Italian ships are to be fitted with the EMPAR MFR). The SAMPSON Radar is made in Cowes, Isle of Wight.
SAMPSON | History
In August 1937, the RDF development at HMSS changed, with many of their best researchers brought into the activity. John D. S. Rawlinson was made responsible for improving the Type 79X. To increase the efficiency, he decreased the frequency to 43 MHz ( 7 metre wavelength ). Designated Type 79Y, it had separate, stationary transmitting and receiving antennas.
History of radar | Royal Navy
The CH radar operator directed them until the observer visually spotted a Do 17. The pilot closed to before opening fire, continuing to close until they were so close that oil spewing from the target covered their windscreen. Breaking off, the Blenheim flipped upside down, and with no visibility the pilot didn't recover until reaching . The target crashed off Bognor Regis, on the south coast of England. This was the first confirmed successful use of airborne radar known to history. In spite of this success, it was clear the Blenheim was simply not going to work as a fighter.
AI Mk. IV radar | Early operations
Follow on from Type 79, metric air warning set. Had separate Tx and Rx antennas, combined in Type 279M to single antenna operation. This set also had a secondary surface search with surface and aerial gunnery capability and used a Precision Ranging Panel, which passed accurate radar ranges directly to the HACS table (analog computer).
List of World War II British naval radar | <a href="Type%20279%20radar">Type 279</a>
"Operating simultaneously over two electromagnetic frequency ranges, the DBR marks the first time this functionality has been achieved using two frequencies coordinated by a single resource manager." This new system has no moving parts, therefore minimizing maintenance and manning requirements for operation. The AN/SPY-3 consists of three active arrays and the Receiver/Exciter (REX) cabinets abovedecks and the Signal and Data Processor (SDP) subsystem below-decks. The VSR has a similar architecture, with the beamforming and narrowband down-conversion functionality occurring in two additional cabinets per array. A central controller (the resource manager) resides in the Data Processor (DP). The DBR is the first radar system that uses a central controller and two active-array radars operating at different frequencies.
Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier | Sensors and self-defense systems
From July 1940, the British fitted the RAF Mk II AI (Airborne Interception) radar into Coastal Command aircraft for use as the Mk II "1½-metre ASV". The radar's known AI weaknesses — problems due to land clutter and inability to determine height, which caused its failure in night fighters — were no handicap in this new role. With two range scales, and , it could detect surfaced U-boats at up to and land at up to away, though a typical U-boat detection range was . The radar had a fairly crude display but was able to give the range and an approximate direction within an arc either side of the aircraft heading.
Metox radar detector | Introduction
The radar contacts were also seen in "Invincible", which directed Sea Harriers on combat patrol to investigate, but they detected nothing. The AAWC on "Invincible" declared the radar contacts as false and left the Air Warning at yellow, instead of raising it to red.
HMS Sheffield (D80) | On "Sheffield"
The first Bars series radar was the N011, which was originally an X band Pulse-Doppler radar developed for the Su-27. In this original N011 form, it deployed a mechanically scanned planar array with 960 mm diameter, ±85 degrees scan sector. The peak output power reached 8 kW with an average of 2 kW. The N011 features a low noise UHF input amplifier, and fully digitized signal processing unit using reprogrammable digital computers. The original requirement to simultaneously track 20 targets and engage 8 of the 20 tracked proved impossible to achieve at the time due to the available Soviet technology, but the N011 is still able to simultaneously track 13 targets and engage 4.
Bars radar | N011
The Type 45 destroyers are primarily designed for anti-air warfare with the capability to defend against targets such as fighter aircraft and drones as well as highly maneuverable sea skimming anti-ship missiles travelling at supersonic speeds. The Royal Navy describes the destroyers' mission as being "to shield the Fleet from air attack". The Type 45 destroyer is equipped with the Sea Viper (PAAMS) air-defence system utilizing the SAMPSON active electronically scanned array multi-function radar and the S1850M long-range radar. PAAMS is able to track over 2,000 targets and simultaneously control and coordinate multiple missiles in the air at once, allowing a large number of tracks to be intercepted and destroyed at any given time.
Type 45 destroyer | Advanced air-defence
Within a few weeks they had made two improvements, moving from six to eight resonators, and replacing the cathode with an oxide-coated version. The resulting E1189 was capable of generating 10 kW of power at 9.1 cm, an order of magnitude better than any existing microwave device. The second E1189 was sent to the AMRE lab, which received it on 19 July.
AI Mk. VIII radar | First magnetron radar
Cunningham was furious, three-quarters of the squadron got airborne but only he had seen an enemy. Unsatisfied with ground- and aircrews, he used his influence in the small night-fighter community to bring in personnel from his old unit, 604, which was languishing in Cornwall. With the new VIII radar a uniform facility, Cunningham took over a Mosquito NF.XII—the first Mosquito to have a smooth "bluff" nose dome over the dish antenna. At this time the Luftwaffe was sending increased numbers of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters over England, at night and at low-level. They were able to hit coastal targets and their speed and agility meant they were difficult to intercept.
John Cunningham (RAF officer) | Last tour
Decimetric (50 cm) ranging set for Bofors 40 mm and "multiple pom-pom" fire control. Fitted on Bofors mounting Mark IV "Hazemeyer" and "Pom-pom Director Mk IV", twin Yagi antennas. Type 282 used a mechanical ranging panel and a 0-5000yd display. Type 282M increased transmission power to 150 kW, used a 0 - 6000yd display and introduced Beam Switching, while Type 282P introduced a Precision Ranging Panel.
List of World War II British naval radar | Type 282
In 1958, the AMES Type 82 began trials at RAF North Coates. This radar was shorter-ranged than the Type 80, but had built-in height finding, more accurate tracking, and had an electromechanical computer to allow it to easily track many targets. It was originally designed for the British Army to sort and filter approaching aircraft and then hand off selected targets to the Yellow River radars that aimed the anti-aircraft artillery. When the air defence role was handed to the RAF, Type 82 went with it and became the warning system for the Bloodhound missile. The RRE stopped development work on the Type 80 in 1960 as their attention turned to the newer systems like Type 85.
AMES Type 80 | Missile role
On 26 July 1940 the squadron was re-designated a specialised night fighter unit. The squadron was amongst the first to receive airborne interception radar (AI). 604 was sent a number of AI Mk. IV radar sets. Jimmy Rawnsley, Cunningham's friend and crew-mate, saw this as an opportunity to join a program which promised a bright future. Rawnsley retrained as a radar operator and would re-join Cunningham in January 1941. In the intervening period the squadron was frequently frustrated by the limitations of the Blenheim. Even with the "magic boxes", they were too slow to catch any of the German bombers if the enemy was given the slightest advantage.
John Cunningham (RAF officer) | Night squadron
The first operational use was in a Junkers Ju 88 on 2 September 1943. The unit, and others that were delivered during this time, proved extremely difficult to keep working. Even when they did work, their angle accuracy was limited, and it did not provide elevation or range information of any sort. Operators found it useful for finding the bomber stream, at ranges as great as , but could not use it to home in on individual aircraft. The "Naxos Z" system's rotating antenna for airborne use was driven by a DC motor, and comprised what appear to be a pair of vacuum tubes laid flat on a circular rotating carriage, which would be enclosed within a radome of either hemispherical shape for single-engine fighter use, or in a more aerodynamic "teardrop" shape for placement atop a twin-engined night fighter's canopy.
Naxos radar detector | Aircraft use
Coastal Command's first radar was ASV Mark I, which began experimental use in 1939. Minor improvements were made for the Mark II in 1940 but it was not widely available until late 1941. Having realized that the RAF was using radar to detect their U-boats, in the summer of 1942 the Germans introduced the Metox radar detector to listen for their signals. This gave the submarine a warning of the aircraft approach long before the submarine became visible on the aircraft's radar display. The RAF noticed this in early autumn when crews reported that they would detect submarines that would disappear as they approached.
ASV Mark III radar | Introduction
The Hughes SCANFAR was the first phased array radar system to be deployed by the US Navy, installed on the USS "Long Beach" (CGN-9) and USS "Enterprise" (CVN-65). It consisted of two search radars, the AN/SPS-32 and the AN/SPS-33. In 1982, the system was removed from "Long Beach", and was replaced by the AN/SPS-48 during a comprehensive overhaul. Aboard the "Long Beach", the system used AN/SPG-55 radars for missile guidance. Despite its failure to enter widespread service, the lessons learned were applied to the follow-on Aegis Combat System and the associated AN/SPY-1 passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar.
SCANFAR | Introduction
The war opened on 1 September 1939, and by this time, the RAF were well advanced with plans to build a radar – then called 'RDF' in Britain – equipped night-fighter fleet. The Airborne Interception Mk. II radar (AI Mk. II) was being fit experimentally to a small number of Bristol Blenheim aircraft, having been selected for this role as its fuselage was sufficiently roomy to accommodate the additional crew member and radar apparatus; the first prototype system went into service in November 1939, long before the opening of major British operations. These early systems had significant practical problems, and while work was underway to correct these flaw, by the time the Blitz opened in August 1940, the night fighter fleet was still in its infancy.
Night fighter | Second World War
Continual improvements in airborne radars through 1956 led to the construction of AEW airplanes by several different countries and several different armed forces. The functions of command and control and sea and air surveillance were also added. The first carrier-based aircraft to perform these missions for the U.S. Navy and its allies was the Douglas AD Skyraider, which was replaced in US Navy service by the Grumman E-1 Tracer, which was a modified version of the S-2 Tracker twin-engine anti-submarine warfare aircraft, where the radar was carried in an aerofoil-shaped radome carried above the aircraft's fuselage.
Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye | Background
The Dunay-2 was a prototype built in Sary Shagan as part of the experimental missile defence system "A". It consisted of separate transmitter and receiver complexes separated by 1 km. The power of the radar was 100 kW and its range was 1,200 km. The NATO codename was "Hen Roost".
Dunay radar | Dunay-2
Based on the Type 79 w/t, first fitted to then and later ; (40 sets ordered)
List of World War II British naval radar | <a href="Type%2079%20radar">Type 79</a>
Although the Royal Navy maintained close contact with the Air Ministry work at Bawdsey, they chose to establish their own RDF development at the Experimental Department of His Majesty's Signal School (HMSS) in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on the south coast. HMSS started RDF work in September 1935. Initial efforts, under R. F. Yeo, were in frequencies between 75 MHz (4 m) and 1.2 GHz (25 cm). All of the work was under the utmost secrecy; it could not even be discussed with other scientists and engineers at Portsmouth. A 75 MHz range-only set was eventually developed and designated Type 79X. Basic tests were done using a training ship, but the operation was unsatisfactory.
History of radar | Royal Navy
The British Army was the first group in Britain to suggest the use of radar; a 1931 report by W. A. S. Butement and P. E. Pollard of the Army's Signals Experimental Establishment proposed using it for detecting ships in the English Channel. The Army proved uninterested in their proposal and the matter was forgotten. In 1935, the Air Ministry independently took up the radar concept and began rapid development of Chain Home. The Army was suddenly very interested, and sent Butement and Pollard to set up a lab at the Air Ministry's research site at Bawdsey Manor in 1936.
Searchlight Control radar | Early Army radar
Metric air warning set with separate Tx / Rx antennas. Based upon Army GL Mark I set, fitted to s converted to anti-aircraft ships. This set used a Precision Ranging Panel, which passed accurate radar ranges directly to the HACS table (analog computer).
List of World War II British naval radar | Type 280
This evaluation, combined with the failure of a mission of LZ-130 to detect British radars in August 1939, appears to have led to a general underestimation of the usefulness of the British radar systems. In spite of being aware of Chain Home, German reports on the state of the Royal Air Force written just before the Battle of Britain did not even mention radar at all. Other reports mention it, but do not consider it to be very important. Other sections of the "Luftwaffe" appear to be dismissive of the system as a whole.
GL Mk. I radar | Radar at Dunkirk
With its greater remit, the facility became the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) in mid-1941. A year later, the ADRDE relocated to Great Malvern, in Worcestershire. In 1944, this was redesignated the Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE).
Radar in World War II | British Army
In 1938, John F. Coales began the development of 600-MHz (50-cm) equipment. The higher frequency allowed narrower beams (needed for air search) and antennas more suitable for shipboard use. The first 50-cm set was Type 282. With 25-kW output and a pair of Yagi antennas incorporating lobe switching, it was trialed in June 1939. This set detected low-flying aircraft at 2.5 miles and ships at 5 miles. In early 1940, 200 sets were manufactured. To use the Type 282 as a rangefinder for the main armament, an antenna with a large cylindrical parabolic reflector and 12 dipoles was used. This set was designated Type 285 and had a range of 15 miles.
Radar in World War II | Air Search/Gunnery Director