Hughes AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder weapon locating system is a mobile

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

system developed in the mid-late 1970s by Hughes Aircraft Company and manufactured by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

and ThalesRaytheonSystems, achieving initial operational capability in May 1982. The system is a "weapon-locating radar", designed to detect and track incoming mortar, artillery and rocket fire to determine the point of origin for counter-battery fire. It is currently in service at

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

and higher levels in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...

, Portuguese Army,

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The radar is typically trailer-mounted and towed by a

Humvee The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ...

Upgrades

Firefinder (V)7 adds a modular azimuth position system (MAPS). MAPS has a north seeking laser gyrocompass and a microprocessor controlled Honeywell H-726

inertial navigation system An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (dir ...

. Prior Firefinders used a survey team to find site

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lette ...

, and direction to North. With MAPS, reaction time was limited only by the time taken to set up the site, since system geo-position was pre-loaded before sortie deployment. Crew was reduced from 8 to 6. Firefinder (V)8 extends system performance, improves operator survivability and lowers life cycle cost. Greater processing power and the addition of a low noise amplifier to the radar antenna improves detection range (by up to 50%) and performance accuracy against certain threats.

Operations/maintainers/specifications

US delivers two Q-36 counter battery radar systems to Ukraine

The AN/TPQ-36 is an electronically steered radar, meaning the

radar antenna Radar engineering details are technical details pertaining to the components of a radar and their ability to detect the return energy from moving scatterers — determining an object's position or obstruction in the environment. This includes fie ...

does not actually move while in operation. The radar antenna may however be moved manually if required. The system may also be operated in a

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while en ...

mode to determine the accuracy of

counterbattery Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements (multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their command an ...

return fire, or for conducting radar registration or mean point of impact calibrations for friendly artillery. It can locate mortars,

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

, and rocket launchers, simultaneously locate 10 weapons, locate targets on first round and perform high-burst, datum-plane, and impact registrations. It can be used to adjust friendly fire, interfaces with tactical fire and predicts the impact of hostile projectiles. Its maximum range is with an effective range of for artillery and for rockets. Its azimuth sector is 90°. It operates in the X-band at 32 frequencies. Peak transmitted power is 23 kW, min. It features permanent storage for 99 targets, has a field exercise mode and uses a digital data interface.

Manufacturers

Northrop Grumman manufactures the AN/TPQ-36(V)8 Firefinder radar. Before its acquisition by

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...

, the

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other pro ...

Co. developed the AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar at its facility at Fullerton, California, and manufactured it at its plant in Forest, Mississippi.

Nomenclature

Per the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), the nomenclature AN/TPQ-36 is thus derived: * "AN/" indicating Army/Navy(Marines)--a system nomenclature derived from the JETDS. * "T" for 'transportable', indicating it is carried by a vehicle but is not an integral part of said vehicle (compare with 'V' for vehicle-mounted). * "P" indicating a position finder (radar). * "Q" for a special-purpose(multipurpose) radar, in this case counterbattery. * "36" is the 36'th version of this family, of TPQ radars.

Users

* : Used by Australian Defence Force * : Used by Royal Netherlands Army * : Used by Portuguese Army ( 5th Artillery Regiment) * : Used by Spanish Army * : Used by Sri Lankan Army * : Used by

Turkish Land Forces The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

* : ** Two units delivered by

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 ...

in 2015. ** Five units delivered by the Netherlands Ministry of Defence in March 2022, during the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

. **Ten units delivered by

on April 13, 2022, 3 more deliveries on May 19, during the

. * : Used by

References

External links

Product Description for AN/TPQ-36
from ThalesRaytheonSystems
TPQ-36 Radar Data Sheet
from ThalesRaytheonSystems
Fact sheet for the AN/TPQ-36
from

ROCS new upgrades for TPQ-36/37
from BES Systems

from GlobalSecurity.org {{DEFAULTSORT:AN TPQ-36 Firefinder radar Ground radars Hughes Aircraft Company Military radars of the United States Northrop Grumman radars Radar equipment of the Cold War Raytheon Company products Weapon Locating Radar Military radars of the United States Marine Corps Military equipment introduced in the 1980s