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November 2012www.marinelink.com 69ticullary the time to get a spare part, saidJörgen Andersson, title. ?We all agreed that this is essential and can drive the re- quirments and needs for spares on-board.? ?We gave the customers a lot of useful information in a broad spectrum,? An- dersson said.Author and naval analyst Dr. Norman Friedman delivered the opening day keynote address on current trends in naval radars, sensors and combat man- agement systems. ?There seemed to bebroad agreement with Dr Friedman?s the- sis that near term radar advances would be made primarily using software modi- fications and upgrades rather than hard- ware, such as new antennas,? Kaufmann said.?Often those who develop a product or system do not realize its full potential,? Friedman said. ?I left the meeting feelingthat the radar can do a lot more than Saabengineers realized it could, particularly inthe area of radar deception.Naval radar development is somewhat dependent on computer processingpower. Friedman said computing power has progressed steadily, a phenomenon called ?Moore?s Law.? Friedman said Moore?s Law is driven by economics. ?If there isn?t a lot of money in faster chips, then it comes to a screeching halt.? Friedman also noted that where beforedifferent radars were known to emit at certiain frequencies and pulsewidths and repetition rates, today radars employ soft- ware to operate in ?multipurpose/multi- mode just about all the time.? Changing these parametres means aradar can emulate something else, mak-ing it harder to identify and counter. ? Combat management and radar manage-ment becomes the same problem.? He also discussed how radars can be moderized without a complete replace-ment of hardware. ?You don?t change the antenna, you change what it produces.? Sharing experience in employing the radar, participants from the navies sug- gested improvements such as modifica- tions tothe radar control panel,specifically to allow more flexibility in start-up and shut down procedures, or a simplifying the different pull-down menues available to the operator. ?A U.S. radar engineer explained why it was important that the enormous versa- tility of the radar be reduced (for the op-erator) so that he could set it up usingonly one button,? Friedman said. ?The operators in turn got a much better ideaof the potential the radar offered. More- over, everyone present got a better idea of the differing operating practices of the navies involved. I would hope that in- spired those from the different navies to think about what they could do with this radar that they had not been able to do with earlier, less capable or less flexible ones.? While each of the navies represented at the event have vastly different missions, operational concepts and operating envi- ronments, there seemed to be a generalagreement that ?multi-mission capability, such as offered by Sea Giraffe, was the best solution.Each navy gave a presentation on their mission and employment of the Sea Gi- raffe radar. Breakout sessions covered new capabilities; creating a supply chain support taskforce; and improving docu- mentation for the logistics reporting sys-tem.?It is productive to come together to talk navy-to-navy to discuss operational and technical issues,? said Cmdr. Bo Berg, head of naval procurement for the Swedish Navy. RELIABLE POWER WHEN THE WEATHER IS NOT WE SPECIALIZE IN:
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