The new US Army EQ-36 Counterfire Target Acquisition Mobile Radar system has been deployed

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Army News United States
 

Friday, 05 November 2010, 19:26 PM
 
The new US Army EQ-36 Mobile Radar system has been deployed for the first time.
 
 

US defence and aerospace Company Lockheed Martin’s EQ-36 is a mobile radar unit that specialises in locating enemy mortar and rocket launchers, and it is now being used operationally in Afghanistan and Iraq.
 
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In US Army service, the EQ-36 will take over from the older TPQ-36 and -37 designs, initially working alongside them before replacing them entirely.

The EQ-36 works in 90 degree or 360 degree modes to provide comprehensive protection against attack from non-targeted sources. Examples of this counterfire target acquisition radar technology were made available for US Army testing some months ago and, following a successful trial outcome, the initial two units were pressed into service on 2 July this year.
 
Lockheed Martin highlights the ability of the EQ-36 mobile radar to provide a single replacement for two current, in-service radar systems. This, it says, provides multiple benefits including cost reductions and opportunities to re-task service personnel to other areas of duty.
“From the start, the EQ-36 program has been about the soldier and the Army’s urgent need to protect them from daily indirect fire threats,” said Carl Bannar, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Radar Systems.
“With more than 40 years of radar experience, we developed the EQ-36 radar in fewer than 30 months - less than half the time it traditionally takes to develop a new radar system.”
 
As a solid-state unit, the EQ-36 offers ruggedness, durability and increased performance, efficiency and safety levels. It also takes five minutes to set-up and just two minutes to disassemble, making the new radar a practical asset in the high-tempo conflict zones that figure within modern-day US Army deployments.
The EQ-36 sits on top of a five-ton truck, and US Army troops will be able to operate the system from remote locations, via remote control, or from a shelter that forms part of it.
Earlier this year, the US Army ordered an additional 17 EQ-36 mobile radar units, supplementing the seven already delivered.