The Finnish Air Force (FAF) has accepted the first Ground Master (GM) 403 long range air defence radar system from ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS) in a ceremony at Tikkakoski AFB in Finland on 15 January.
Although the system was delivered July 2012, the radar system has just been qualified under the air force’s site acceptance test (SAT), and is therefore ready for operational use.
TRS beat Lockheed Martin to the €200 million contract award, which was awarded in May 2009.
The contract is for 12 GM 403 systems for the Finnish Air Force, plus an additional two systems for Estonia. To date two systems have been delivered to Finland, with one more pending delivery, and one to Estonia, which is preparing for its own SAT on the radar. Deliveries are expected to be completed at the end of 2015.
‘With the GM we design blocks that can be used in different members of the family,’ Dominique Simonneau, senior VP of business development for TRS, told a media briefing in Jyvaskyla on 15 January. ‘It is fully digital and has been designed to detect low altitude targets. With UAVs now being used it is mandatory that radars operate lower.
The Finnish requirement was for a mobile system that can be packed into one ISO container, although the radars will only be deployed within Finland and not on overseas operations. Four Finnish companies, including Patria, are involved in the GM 403 effort.
Because the system is fully digital, software upgrades can be offered later on down the programme line.
The GM 400 family, which also includes the longer range 406 variant, is operational in Malaysia and Slovenia, while France has three systems on contract, and Germany six. Some ten platforms have been delivered to date, with ten more due to be delivered this year, and 33 orders for the family have been made.
‘It will be replacing the current Finnish medium range air defence capability,’ Col Kari Renko, FAF materiel command, programmes division, added at a media briefing at the Tikkakoski AFB.
He said that the radar capability within the FAF is formed of three components – long, medium and short – of which the 403 is going to be the medium range capability. It provides coverage of some 450km in range and 30km in altitude.
The GM 403 replaces the current Finnish-made KEVA2010 system, which has been in service since 1978. The Finnish designation for the new system is MRR2010.
‘We feel this is an important programme… what we’re replacing has been very important for air defence. We’re fully confident [the 403] will do justice for the next 30 years.’
He added that the Estonian Air Force is procuring its two systems under a separate contract, although the production schedule is shared.
‘We’re saving manpower by doing this jointly,’ he added.
The FAF’s long range capability is provided by the Thales Teresa 22xx radar system that has been in service since 1995. An upgrade €30 million programme is being run by TRS in parallel to the new procurement. It is expected to complete in 2015 and will take the operational life of the systems to 2025 while also overcoming obsolescence issues.
Meanwhile, Simonneau added that TRS is looking into cyber defence for its air defence platforms.
‘We have started to invest heavily in the cyber field,’ he explained. ‘In particular the specificity of cyber applied to air C4I. The basis of cyber is to have security insurance. If you consider cyber threats from an air defence point of view… we’re seeing if we can unveil those cyber threats.’
The company is planning to unveil its efforts in this area with a cyber product launch during the Paris Air Show in June.
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