Mil Tech — Detecting the Enemy
Sep 06 2010
Knowing where the enemy is located and his or her strength and disposition has been an overriding concern for military commanders down through the ages. But if a research project under way bears fruit, modern-day commanders will be able to see through the foliage and know where the enemy is located and where he’s headed.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is involved in a program called Foliage Penetrating Ground Moving Target Indicator Radar Exploitation and Planning (FOPEN-GXP) that would pinpoint concentrations of dismounted soldiers as they move through dense forests or foliage using Foliage Penetration Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Tracking and Engagement Radar (FORESTER).
Developed by Syracuse Research Corp. in North Syracuse, N.Y., the FORESTER system flies on the UMQ-18A unmanned helicopter (A 160T Hummingbird) made by the Boeing Company.
Mark Peterson, DARPA public affairs office spokesman, says the objective of FORESTER radar is to detect and track dismounts moving under trees, as well as vehicles under trees, to a range of 30 kilometers, filling a surveillance gap that currently exists.
The system works by having the helicopter fly into the wind and then hover over a spot on the earth, maintaining zero ground speed. The radar’s antenna is rotated to point to the center of the region of interest, and the radar then lays down a sequence of beams to cover that area.
The radar can cover a 90 degree sector every 40 to 50 seconds.
Because FORESTER is able to filter out the radar signatures of moving water, windblown foliage and animals, it then can show the size, position and direction of travel of foot soldiers moving in the foliage.
The system also has been tested on a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter.
While the FORESTER radar currently weighs in the neighborhood of 600 lbs., the intent is to reduce that weight once the radar goes into production.
Peterson observes that ground-based FORESTER applications are possible, such as a foliage penetration radar mounted on a tower that would be able to detect dismounts under foliage that were within the radar’s unblocked field of view.
As to making FORESTER into a man-packable size, he adds that in principle it’s possible, but it’s not part of the DARPA program at this point.
DARPA is seeking agencies to develop and integrate a set of tools to enhance the radar data into workstation modules.
About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.
