Norway's Kongsberg and Poland's Advanced Protection Systems to develop C-UAS

SKYctrl C-UAS with 3D MIMO radar technology. (Advanced Protection Systems)

Norway's Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has signed a teaming agreement with Poland-based Advanced Protection Systems (APS) to develop and produce counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UASs), according to a 29 July Kongsberg press release.

APS plans to provide its FIELDctrl radars and SKYctrl C-UASs, according to the release. The co-founder and CEO of APS, Maciej Klemm, said Kongsberg's “air-defence experience” combined with APS' radars will result in systems that are “fully interoperable within NATO”. According to the deal, the two companies agreed to exchange sensitive technical information to enable interoperable C-UASs.

The two companies also agreed to pursue C-UAS business opportunities and create platforms that combine radars, sensor fusion, command-and-control (C2), and kinetic as well as non-kinetic (soft-kill) systems.

According to APS, the SKYctrl C-UAS is a modular radar sensor with 3D multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar technology, radar tracking, a radio frequency (RF) sensor, a jammer, and a C2 system. It is capable of tracking multiple targets at once and differentiates between birds and UASs. It can detect UASs using the 3D MIMO radars and its CyView C2 software. CyView tracks the direction, course, and altitude of flying objects in real time. It effectively jams 20 bands, including industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM); very high frequency (VHF); global system for mobile communications (GSM); universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS); long-term evolution (LTE); and global navigation satellite services (GNSS).

The FIELDctrl 3D MIMO radars enable the detection, tracking, and classification of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), featuring a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar, as previously reported by Janes