Lynx Radar Capabilities Demonstrated During Patrol Operations On Southwest U.S. Border

23rd October 2008 - 01:00 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc, a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical reconnaissance radars, today announced that its Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor successfully identified suspected areas of illegal crossing activity along the U.S. southwest border during recent border patrol operations conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) out of Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The Lynx SAR is now performing day-to-day border search operations onboard a CBP Predator B unmanned aircraft system (UAS), also manufactured by GA-ASI.

Despite cloud cover and ground haze obscuration in the search area, the Lynx SAR’s weather penetration and wide-area scan capabilities have resulted in repeatedly successful missions with all objectives achieved.

“The Lynx radar’s wide field-of-view and ability to pinpoint activity allows operators to cue EO/IR [Electro-Optical/Infrared] payloads or ground units to investigate anomalies,” said Linden P. Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. “Lynx SAR’s broad-area and all-weather surveillance capabilities continue to maximize the value and search area of the sophisticated and long-endurance Predator B UAS during CBP border patrol operations.”

The Lynx radar provides the all-weather precision capability to detect time-sensitive targets and offers a long-range, wide-area surveillance capability that can provide high-resolution SAR imagery slant ranges well beyond effective EO/IR range. The radar also incorporates a broad area GMTI (Ground Movement Target Indicator) scanning capability to detect moving vehicles and cue the EO/IR payload via the CLAW payload control software.