Prima anti-stealth radar

Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it will display a model of the Prima anti-stealth radar at Aero India 2021 that will take place from February 3-5.

It is the first display of the Prima radar at an international defence exhibition.

“We are starting to promote the Prima mobile radar, which offers a unique capability to effectively detect current and emerging low-visibility targets, including any stealth aircraft,” Alexander Mikheev, General Director of Rosoboronexport and Deputy Chairman of the Russian Engineering Union, had said in November last year.

The P-18-2 Prima high-mobility 2D surveillance and acquisition radar was developed and manufactured by PJSC NITEL and PJSC NPO Almaz. The solid-state radar is based on modern hardware components and digital signal processing and generation technology. It features high energy potential and increased immunity. The radar is designed to detect, track, locate and identify air targets of various classes and types as friend or foe in both jamming and clutter environments, take the bearing of jammers, and feed radar data to users’ automated command-and-control systems.

The P-18-2 is distinguished from most other radars available on the market by its high mobility achieved through the installation of all equipment and antenna post on one vehicle. At the same time, its crew consists of only two people who can operate both from the equipped cabin and remote workstations. The radar features a high level of automation and can be deployed and stowed within about 5 minutes.

The Prima radar operates in the VHF band and is capable of detecting any aircraft, including stealth ones. Its range coverage exceeds 320 km and elevation coverage is up to 45 deg. The minimum detection range is 500 meters. The developers have introduced a number of technology solutions to ensure the radar’s operation in a jamming environment, difficult terrain and in adverse weather conditions. The radar automatically detects and tracks low-speed and low-visibility targets in a clutter environment.

The radar is equipped with advanced satellite navigation equipment exploiting GLONASS/GPS signals that provide automatic positioning. It has a built-in diesel power plant and a power take-off generator, and can also be connected to a three-phase general-purpose electrical network. At the customer request, the standard diesel generating set can be replaced with a similar, including foreign-made, one. The radar’s base vehicle chassis can also be replaced with a similar one.