An official ceremony was held on January 15 at Finnish Air Force headquarters in Tikkakoski to mark the delivery by ThalesRaytheonSystems of a Ground Master 400 (GM 400) long-range air defense radar system.

The ceremony was presided by the Chief-of-Staff of the Finnish Air Force, Brigadier-General Kari Salmi.

This system is the first of 12 radar systems ordered by the Finnish Air Force to provide extended surveillance of the nation’s airspace. The radars are designed to operate at fixed sites under a radome or for rapid deployment in the field in less than two hours.

After an extensive test campaign, the GM 400 has successfully completed site acceptance procedures with the Finnish Ministry of Defense and Air Force and ThalesRaytheonSystems personnel.

Set up in a tactical, truck-mounted configuration with an independent power supply, this first radar system will bring Finland the benefits of all the latest advances in radar technology, providing superior detection performance at high and low altitudes, high availability and simplified maintenance.

“Our operators are satisfied with the progression of this program which has reached this remarkable milestone and we are looking forward to see all these modern system benefits in operation”, noted Brigadier-General Kari Salmi, Chief-of-Staff of the Finnish Air Force.

“The level of cooperation between the Finnish Ministry of Defense and ThalesRaytheonSystems teams in accomplishing the deployment of this GM 400 radar was excellent. We look forward to pursuing our collaboration with Finland on the next 11 GM 400s,” said Philippe Duhamel, CEO of ThalesRaytheonSystems SAS.