Man-portable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (MSTAR) is a lightweight all-weather battlefield

Doppler radar A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the fr ...

operating in the J band. It is usually used by

artillery observer An artillery observer, artillery spotter or forward observer (FO) is responsible for directing artillery and mortar fire onto a target. It may be a ''forward air controller'' (FAC) for close air support (CAS) and spotter for naval gunfire su ...

s to acquire and engage targets in bad visibility or at night. It is capable of detecting, recognizing and tracking

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, slow moving fixed-wing

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

, tracked and wheeled vehicles and troops, as well as observing and adjusting the fall of shot. The radar display is an electro-luminescent screen that can be overlaid with a map grid. It also shows the areas of ground visible to the radar and those that are masked by terrain. Target location can be presented as either map coordinates or bearing and distance (

polar coordinates In mathematics, the polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a reference point and an angle from a reference direction. The reference point (analogous to th ...

) from the radar. The complete radar weighs It can detect targets out to , with a maximum range of . The radar head (antenna and electronics) are connected by remoting cable to the display. The rotating head can be mounted on either a tripod on the ground or an elevated mast, the latter fitted to the Warrior Artillery Observation Post vehicle (FV514), or the

Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle The LAV II Bison and Coyote are armoured cars (or armoured personnel carriers) built by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada for the Canadian Forces. It is based on the Mowag Piranha 8x8. Bison vehicles have also been used (to a lesser exten ...

. When fitted to the mast power is taken from the vehicle supply and the display is inside the vehicle. For dismounted use the radar uses standard military rechargeable dry batteries and is man-carried in three loads. The radar can be set up in under three minutes.

History

The requirement for MSTAR was developed in the early 1980s by the

UK Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence (MOD or MoD) is the department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by His Majesty's Government, and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces. The MOD states that its principal objectives are to ...

as a replacement for Radar GS No 14 ( ZB298) that had entered service some 10 years earlier. The primary users of MSTAR, like its predecessor, were and are artillery observation parties, although it may be used by other reconnaissance and surveillance elements as required. MSTAR was developed and produced in UK in the mid 1980s by Thorn EMI Electronics (now part of

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...

) and selected by competitive tender. MSTAR entered UK service in early 1991, slightly accelerated for use in the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

. Its official UK designation is Radar, GS, No 22. In about 2005 MSTAR underwent an upgrading programme. MSTAR is used by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

as AN/PPS-5C and by the Australian Army as AMSTAR. It is also used for border patrols, airports, coastal patrols, and high security areas. The Canadian Forces use the MSTAR on their

s. MSTAR is now licensed and manufactured by

DRS Technologies Leonardo DRS, formerly DRS Technologies, Inc., is a US-based defense contractor. Previously traded on the NYSE, the company was purchased by the Italian firm Finmeccanica (now Leonardo S.p.A.) in October 2008. History Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems ...

References

External links

Manportable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (MSTAR V6)
drs.com Ground radars Military radars of the United Kingdom Royal Artillery {{UK-mil-stub