Thales SMART-L ELR in At Sea Demo
A prototype version of Thales’ SMART-L Extended Long Range (ELR) radar has demonstrated the ability to defend a naval vessel against a hostile outer-atmosphere ballistic missile during At Sea Demonstrations held off the coast of Scotland in October.
The sensor suite, installed on the Royal Netherlands Navy’s HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën frigate, succeeded in tracking the Terrier-Orion ballistic missile launched from the Scottish island Benbecula and travelling at 7000 km/h. The tracking information was sent through the NATO network to USS Ross. This ship intercepted the ballistic missile with a Standard Missile 3 (SM-3).
The SMART-L ELR radar will be installed on the Royal Netherlands Navy’s Air Defence and Command frigates (LCF) to enable the detection of targets at up to 1500km.
During the testing the frigate maintained its air defence capability, protecting the 10 ships in the squadron, at about 10km from each other, against incoming anti-ship missiles using its SM-2 and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles. It used its Thales APAR multifunction radar in addition to the SMART-L ELR.
The demonstration was part of testing for NATO's plans for improved collective defences against ballistic missiles.
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