美 육군의 EQ-36 대포병레이더 배치 운용 소식...

 

지난 23일 북한의 연평도 포격 도발과 관련한 참고 자료로, 美 육군이 도입 운용할 예정인 EQ-36 대포병레이더

자료를 소개한 바 있습니다. (관련 자료는 아래 태그를 이용하면 됩니다.)

 

EQ-36 은 美 Lockheed Martin 社가 기존 AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder 를 개량한 신형 대포병레이더 입니다. 마침

지난 11월초 C4ISR Journal 에서 보도한 EQ-36 대포병레이더 최근 소식과 동영상 및 사진들을 아래 소개

합니다.

 

C4ISR Journal 기사에 의하면, 9월부터 Iraq 주둔 美 육군에게 EQ-36 대포병레이더가 배치되기 시작하였으며,

Afghanistan 주둔 美 육군에게도 곧 배치될 계획이라 합니다.

 

다소 장문의 기사 입니다만, 기존 TPQ-36/37 과 신형 EQ-36 대포병레이더에 대한 운용상의 차이점과 기술적

차이 그리고 개발과정 및 가격등에 대해서 상세히 설명하고 있습니다. 앞서 소개한 ppt 자료를 참고로 하면서

아래 기사를 읽으면, EQ-36 대포병레이더에 대한 상세한 파악이 가능할 것으로 보입니다.

 

P.S.

정확히 언제부터라고 말씀드리기가 어렵습니다만, 최근 다음 블로그에 글 올리기, 특히 사진과 영문 올리는

것이 참으로 어렵습니다. 글쓰기 곳곳에 숨어있는 버그가 얼마나 많은지, 글을 한번 올리고 나서 최소한

3-4번 이상은 수정 기능을 통해 고쳐야 할 부분이 너무 많습니다. 무심코 처음 그냥 올리고 게시글을 꼼꼼히

읽어보지 않으면 곳곳에 버그가 있는 것을 볼 수 있습니다. 사진에서도 밑에 설명을 붙일려 하면 전체 글의

모양이 헝클어지고 말이고...이러한 점을 관리자에게 문의/신고 하였으나 최종 수정에서는 다소 시간이 걸린

다고 합니다. 혹 아래글이나 기타 글들에서 버그/오탈자 등을 보시더라도 이해해 주시기를 부탁드립니다...

 

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Full protection

360-degree radar arrives after rough lesson in Baghdad

C4ISR Journal, November 01, 2010

By Keith Button

 

Lockheed Martin is scheduled to finish delivering the first batch of new mortar and rocket detecting radars to the Army in November, just shy of four years after the start of work.

 

The first EQ-36 radar in what could be a $1 billion program was sent to Iraq in September, six years after the insurgent pounding at Baghdad airport that prompted the Army to launch a competition for rapid development of a better transportable radar. Lockheed reports that one or more of the radars also has been sent to Afghanistan — the Army will not permit the company to say how many, and the service did not respond to inquiries.

 

With major combat declared over in Iraq, a targeting and acquisition platoon is using the first EQ-36 to warn U.S. trainers and Iraqi forces of incoming fire and to target counterfire. Specifically, the radars will watch over members of the Army’s Long Knife Brigade.The EQ-36 has several differences with the 1970s-vintage radars it is replacing, the Q-36s and Q-37s. The EQ-36 can see farther out and closer in than the old radars, in addition to its 360-degree view, said Col. Robert Thomas, the Army’s project manager for EQ-36. “With the EQ-36, those gaps are filled,” Thomas said.

 

The EQ-36 also requires fewer people to run. The ground crew for the EQ-36 consists of four soldiers, compared with six for the Q-36 and 12 for the Q-37 — a huge system with a radar sensor that sticks up 20 feet into the air.

 

Each EQ-36 has two trucks, each pulling a generator, compared with three vehicles for the Q-36s and six for the Q-37s. The EQ-36’s first truck has the radar sensor mounted on the back; the second carries a command center for controlling the radar, with two work stations with computer consoles for the operators.

 

The radar antenna can be operated independently from a remote location or, in a pinch, from the cab of the truck carrying the radar. The EQ-36s require new equipment training of two weeks, for radar operators experienced on the older Q-36 and Q-37 systems, and the operators have had no problems transitioning to the new system, Thomas said.

 

From the radar operator’s point of view, switching from the older radars to the new is a pretty transparent process, said Lee Flake, manager of the EQ-36 program for Lockheed Martin.

 

The new radars will pick up projectiles faster and better than the older radars, which will allow for a faster response and better distinguishing of real threats from high clutter, such as manned and unmanned aircraft, buildings or the varied terrain of Afghanistan, Flake said. “We’re going to see things that the older ones didn’t show,” he said.

 

Mechanically, there is a huge difference between the newer and older radars, which used vacuum tube technology, are difficult to maintain and break fairly easily, Flake said. With the Q-36s and Q-37s, the crews operating the radars had to include a soldier who specialized in radar maintenance and repair. With the EQ-36s, that isn’t necessary — the radar operators can repair a majority of problems that may arise, he said.

 

Small operator crews are possible with the EQ-36 because tasks required for setting up the Q-36 and Q-37 have been automated, such as leveling the radar. And the operator can be more comfortable, with a cool and roomy operation shelter on the second truck, with larger screen displays.

 

“That helps the soldiers minimize fatigue, so they can stay in the fight longer and be more focused,” Flake said. “We’ve done everything we can do to make it easier for the operators.”

 

For the radar operator, the major difference with the EQ-36 is the 360-degree coverage, he said. That means the new radars can cover a larger area than the older radars did, and with fewer of them. “From a tactical standpoint, that’s great for a commander.”

 

The Q-36s were used primarily to detect incoming mortars, while the Q-37s focused on rocket fire and could cover cannons as well, which haven’t been a factor in Iraq and Afghanistan. The EQ-36 “does equally well against the short shooters like mortars and the long shooters like rockets, Flake said.

 

The EQ-36 can also operate in a “stare” mode, looking just at a 90-degree sector, which helps it look out farther, such as for long-range rockets that are consistently coming from a known location. The stare mode could be used in certain situations or with certain terrains, such as looking down an enemy-controlled valley, and the radar operator doesn’t have to wait for the radar to sweep through the field, as it does in the 360-degree mode, Flake said.

 

With the EQ-36, a major goal was to move away from reliance on control shelters aboard trucks except when soldiers have no other shelter. The radars are designed to be operated remotely. In testing, the radar has been operated by laptop from up to 1 kilometer away.

 

“We don’t need the shelter at all,” said Flake, a former Army colonel in the 1st Armored Division. “That’s primarily for soldiers with no buildings at all, and it’s a good environment for that.”

 

But, he said, in a stable environment, the preference would be to operate from nearby buildings — a unit’s headquarters, for example.

 

Moving the radar operators away from the radars helps improve survivability if the radars themselves are targeted, Flake said. The projectile detection radars are generally used to protect areas with high concentrations of troops, equipment or other high-value targets, tied into automated counterfire systems as well as warning systems that sound an alarm for troops to take cover from incoming fire.

 

The four-year development and deployment timeline for the EQ-36 was planned from the beginning. “A typical radar takes 60 months to develop,” Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said. For the EQ-36, “it took 45 months from design to combat.” Engineers had to wait several months to get started, however, when Northrop Grumman protested the $120 million contract award to Lockheed Martin in September 2006. The issue was whether the contractor had to promise 360-degree coverage for rocket and cannon fire from the start to win the contract. The U.S. Government Accountability Office threw out the protest in January 2007, agreeing with U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command that 360-degree coverage was a preference, not a requirement.

 

By late 2007, the 360-degree coverage issue was made moot when Lockheed’s prototypes successfully tracked rocket, cannon and mortar fire in 360 degrees.

 

The program laid out by the Army was unusual. “The Army gave us a special challenge: building production systems at the same time as the developmental systems,” Flake said.

 

Lockheed delivered four developmental EQ-36 systems between July 2009 and March 2010 under the $120 million contract. In January 2010, while the Army tested the first developmental systems at Arizona’s Yuma Proving Ground, Lockheed Martin started building and delivering the production systems, a total of 12 due, at an additional cost of $152 million.

 

The last of the 12 EQ-36 systems is due for delivery by early November, which could put them in Iraq and Afghanistan by early 2011.

 

The Army awarded a new contract in April 2010 for at least 17 more EQ-36s, with delivery beginning in 2011. For the next contract, the so-called “full-rate production” versions of the EQ-36s, the Army will seek competitive bids from multiple contractors at some point in 2011, Thomas said.

 

The total number that the Army will end up buying is down slightly than what was first planned, Thomas said. The Army is planning to deploy fewer brigades that have the radars, so it won’t need as many of the new systems as it originally planned.

 

Each EQ-36 costs $12 million, compared with the original price estimate of $9 million to $10 million. Thomas said the cost increase is because of “cutting edge” features that have been added.

 

Because of the high cost of maintaining the 1970s-era Q-36 and Q-37 radar systems, the EQ-36s will pay for themselves within a three- to five-year window, Thomas said.

 

“Once fully fielded, the savings should pretty much fund, or recoup, the costs of the program,” he said.

 

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

   ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

   ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

   ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

   ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin