HENSOLDT, the provider of the state-of-the-art Air Defense and Weapon Locating RadarCOBRA, now presents its passive radar system TwInvis.
With the TwInvis passive radar, HENSOLDT has revolutionised classical radar technology.This system does not emit any signals itself, which means that it remains virtually invisible.Nevertheless it can even locate aircraft equipped with stealth technology.
For the first time, TwInvis allows the airspace to be monitored over a radius of up to 250kilometers, without emitting radar signals. Mobile, and unobtrusively integrated into a smallvan or off-road vehicle, this radar’s possible uses are almost unlimited, ranging from airsurveillance during particularly sensitive events to civil air traffic control and militaryapplications.
Conventional radar systems all work using the same principle: they emit signals that arereflected by an object. The radar in turn visualizes that object based on the echo received.TwInvis follows a radically different approach: the system uses the countless radio signalswhich are already in the air from broadcast and TV transmitters and evaluates their echoeswhen reflected by an object.
More Security
For politics and business events, safety is a key issue. In this context, it would be possible touse a mobile TwInvis to even track small aircraft without transmitting any signals of its own.Thanks to its innovative technology, it can be installed directly in valleys and monitor theairspace, which was only possible with a great deal of effort, if at all, with conventional radarsystems.
In addition, TwInvis could, for example, detect the aircraft of smugglers in a specific region, provide additional security in urban areas or cost-effectively supplement conventional radars in air traffic control. As it doesn’t broadcast anysignals, it can even be used without any additional official approvals.
This ‘super radar’ is made possible by the extension of the computing performance and by aspecialty of HENSOLDT: a highly sensitive, multi-channel digital receiver technology, whichmakes it possible to locate radar echoes that are up to ten billion times weaker than theoutput signal, for as many as 25 transmitters at the same time.
No Visibility
In the military field, TwInvis even combines several advantages. In addition to its highmobility, the system itself remains ‘invisible’, that means that it cannot be jammed oreliminated in a targeted action. At the same time, it can also be used to discover previouslyundetectable stealth aircraft that conventional radar systems cannot not pick up becauseof the low observable technology.
Stealth technology prevents an aircraft using it from emitting any radar signals. Instead,these signals are absorbed by the surface of the aircraft and thus undetectable.
TwInvis makes this technology vulnerable by reliably detecting the echoes in the frequencyrange of broadcast and TV signals. Stealth aircraft thus become visible.
The market launch is imminent
A single TwInvis can monitor airspace over a radius of 250 kilometers. Up to 200 aircraft arevisible at the same time in 3D (range and altitude). Moreover, several TwInvis can be linkedup into a networked system so as to monitor even larger areas, coasts or borders.
TwInvis has already shown what it can do in several impressive demonstrations to militarycustomers, air traffic control organizations and other interested parties.
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