Lockheed Martin [LMT] recently said its Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment-Enabled Radar (TRACER) has successfully completed operational demonstrations and deployed in support of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
The penetrating radar is able to detect objects that are buried, camouflaged or concealed under dense foliage.
The radar will operate on a U.S. Army C12 aircraft in support of SOUTHCOM missions such as counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief .
“We welcome the opportunity to continue to support SOUTHCOM’s mission,” said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. “As our foliage penetration system has for many years, the TRACER system stands ready to serve and deliver SOUTHCOM with unique actionable intelligence products 24/7, 365 days of the year, day or night.”
The lightweight low frequency synthetic aperture TRACER sees through foliage, rain, darkness, dust storms or atmospheric haze to provide real-time, high-quality tactical ground imagery.
Before this deployment, TRACER successfully completed more than 160 flight tests on manned and unmanned platforms.
TRACER replaces Lockheed Martin’s operationally proven foliage penetration (FOPEN) system, which has completed more than 1,400 flights since going operational in 2005. While smaller and more lightweight than FOPEN, TRACER’s system design still incorporates all the capability of its predecessor, which uses an advanced detection capability to suppress background clutter. The dual band (VHF/UHF) capability increases target discovery over a variety of terrain and concealment scenarios to reveal positions of mobile and stationary targets.
There are currently four qualified TRACER systems available for deployment on manned or unmanned platforms. TRACER was developed for the Army’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate, based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.