IAI's ELTA to introduce new Multi-System Multi-Mission Radar
System to be introduced at upcoming Paris Air Show.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMMS-MMR(photo credit: IAI)
Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary ELTA Systems will announce the latest generation of its ELM-2084 MS-Multi-Mission Radar (Multi-Sensor MMR) at the Paris Air Show which opens outside the French capital on Monday.The operational and combat proven MMR is the radar of Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and IAI’s land-based Barak missile defense weapon systems and has been sold to customers around the world.“Over the last few years, the types of aerial threats have changed and grown,” Eyal Shapira, VP and general manager AD and Naval Radar System Division ELTA at IAI, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.According to Shapira, the new types of aerial threats that have emerged due to the advancement of low RCS (Radar Cross Section), stealth technology and platforms like drones, cruise missiles, ballistic rockets and more have created new challenges to the current air defense systems used worldwide.“This created a demand for systems able to fill in the aerial situational picture (ASP) and deal with a high number of threats – with higher accuracy, faster update rates and upgraded identification of threats in the sky,” he added.IAI’s ELM-2084 MS-MMR system allows for the monitoring, tracking and interception of several airborne projectiles simultaneously at an altitude between 100 meters to 3,000 m. (330 to 10,000 feet) and covers a wide area of about 250 km.According to Shapira, the new system can not only increase the range and altitude, but can also identify and track targets flying at low distances and at short ranges, which is a problem for other radar systems.The new version fuses additional ELTA sensors to the main MMR system, providing an active, passive and combined ASP. It operates in an S-Band frequency and provides long-range air defense, air surveillance and fire control capabilities.By fusing the MMR with an additional higher band radar and active IFF and ADS-B sensors and passive SIGINT, EO/IR and LDS (Launch Detector Sensor) sensors, the system can provide enhanced classification, identification and discrimination between very close targets even in dense areas and high background noise.The strength of the system, Shapira said, is that it can be added to the MMRs already being used by customers around the world, which allows them to take separate parts as necessary.
According to the company, the MS-MMR “significantly improves” the reliability of the ASP and situational awareness of the radar and can handle new types of small, low, slow and hovering radar cross-section threats as well as rockets and missiles of varying ranges.With all the sensors integrated at the system level, the MS-MMR provides a single output for all the fused data, greatly simplifying the delivery of the combined target data into C2 ASP networks.“MMR is one of our most successful products with over 100 systems sold worldwide. The MMR has grown and evolved throughout the years and has changed the landscape of the modern battlefield,” said Yoav Tourgeman, IAI VP and CEO of ELTA. “We view the introduction of the MS-MMR as heralding a new era in the development of radar systems combined with both active and passive sensors which can immensely improve the reliability and survivability of an ASP system.”
