Project Ninox delivers 65 AMSTAR GSRs

The ADF has received 61 Australian Manportable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (AMSTAR) ground surveillance radars (GSRs) as part of Project Ninox.

Plans were to fit 25 of the GSRs to Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs) operated by armoured reconnaissance regiments, with the remainder being allocated to infantry battalions, artillery regiments and regional force surveillance units.

Supplied by Racal Electronics, the Australian Manportable Surveillance and Target Acquisition (AMSTAR) radar was an improved variant of the MSTAR Doppler radar in service with the British Army, and was purchased under a contract worth $62 million.

Providing an all-weather target detection and classification capability at ranges up to at least 35 km, the AMSTAR, which can be carried by two soldiers and operated by one, also provides an indirect allweather, day/night target acquisition and fire-adjustment capability for artillery observers.

Now Thales Germany has introduced a new compact, lightweight pulse-Doppler Ku-band battlefield surveillance radar to complement the larger designs such as BOR-A, MSTAR and SQUIRE already in the group’s inventory.

The new radar system, known as Lynx, can be carried as a one-man load, weighing about 25 kg including sensor head (12 kg), tripod, cables, six-hour battery power supply and laptop display.