Hensoldt develops UAV detect and avoid radar

Hensoldt has enhanced the features of its collision avoidance radar system for UAVs, having developed a radome technology that protects it from mechanical environmental influence such as bird strikes or lightning, while minimally affecting the radar’s functionality. 

The architecture of the new radome was initially tailored to a test aircraft but can be adapted to other platforms, and further flight tests are scheduled to take place this summer.

Hensoldt has developed a demonstrator of the detect-and-avoid radar system, which uses radar technology to detect objects in the flight path of a UAV to provide early warning of any threat of collision following precise evaluation of the flight direction.

Simultaneously, the sensor also assumes all the functions of a weather radar system.

It uses active electronically scanned array technology that allows several detection tasks to be carried out at the same time, and enables objects to be detected quickly. 

It replaces the pilot’s visual assessment of the situation, and is equally suited to military and civilian UAVs, including for the delivery of cargo. 

This radar system is incorporated into the UAV’s nose, and needs to be protected by a radome that is electrically transparent, has exactly the same thickness across the board, and is adapted to the aerodynamics of the platform. 

This is something that requires knowledge of materials processing and the operating principle of radar systems, Hensoldt says.

The multifunction radar for UAVs will be presented for the first time to the general public in Ulm, during the International Radar Symposium of the German Institute for Navigation.