Cassidian, the defense and security division of EADS, brings a new radar onto the market which offers completely new options for air traffic control and for safe guidance of aircraft during take-off and landing.

Called “ASR-NG” (Airport Surveillance Radar, Next Generation), this system is at the centre of Cassidian’s product presentation at the ATC Global exhibition in Amsterdam.

“Air traffic has become so dense that air traffic control can no longer manage without the most modern radars and automatic identification systems,” explained Elmar Compans, Head of the Sensors & Electronic Warfare unit at Cassidian.

“In this context, our new radar will make an important contribution to avoiding collisions and to efficient use of the air space,” he added.

The ASR-NG consists of a primary radar for wide-area surveillance of the airfields’ surroundings as well as a secondary radar for automatic identification of the individual aircraft. Its extreme sensitivity means that even very small objects such as ultra-lightweight aircraft, slow flying objects such as helicopters or even flocks of birds can be reliably detected and classified. Especially developed algorithms allow for safe guidance of aircraft even in the vicinity of wind turbines, which is hardly possible with conventional systems.

The MSSR 2000 I (Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar) works in accordance with the latest air traffic control standard “Mode S Enhanced Surveillance” and additionally delivers ADS-B data, which greatly improves the interrogation process for aircraft identification as well as flight plan allocations. It has been type certified (NfL II 66/09) by the German air traffic control organization DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung) and certified (pursuant to EC 262/2009) by the European ATC organization EUROCONTROL, which means that there is no need for operators to carry out their own validation procedures.

Cassidian has already made a name for itself by supplying air traffic control and identification systems in the military and civilian sector. For example, Cassidian equips the German Armed Forces’ airports with the ASR-S airport surveillance radar and delivers a complete approach control system for the military airfields in Switzerland. In addition, the MSSR 2000 I secondary radar is deployed on German Navy vessels and by the naval forces of France, Norway and Finland for military friend-or-foe identification. For civil air traffic control, Cassidian’s identification systems are used in countries such as Germany, USA, Austria, Portugal, Bulgaria and the Philippines.