SubscribeSecures Freedom of Operation
Enhanced version of the ARTHUR Weapon Locating System now in service with the Royal Artillery
ARTHUR is today the leading mobile weapon locating radar system. Developed during the nineties for the Norwegian and Swedish armies it has recently taken part in major military operations.
User assessment of the system is highly favourable, exemplified by the gunners dubbing their ARTHUR unit “our seventh gun”.
Today ten countries have procured the system and it is operational from sub-arctic through desert to tropical regions. Deliveries of the first ARTHUR units started in 1999.
At the same time Ericsson had begun definition and development of an enhanced version. The aim was to increase system performance without sacrificing the mobility, reliability and ease of operation of the system.
Development and testing is now completed and the first units are in service with among others the British Royal Artillery.
ARTHUR in the MAMBA version for the Royal Artillery
The improvements to the ARTHUR Weapon Locating System performance in the new version have primarily been achieved by exploiting the more powerful digital electronics now available. These are the main items:
- A 25% increase in locating range (4dB increase in radar performance) obtained from
- higher transmitter duty cycle.
- modified receiver with lower noise factor.
- more efficient signal processing with reduced losses.
- Improved tracker stability obtained by adding gravity drop and drag terms to the tracker equations and decreasing tracker bandwidth.
- Improved accuracy from more advanced trajectory estimation. The trajectory is now estimated by a numerical solution to the full ballistic equations of motion subject to the minimising of the track point residuals.
- Improved target classification. More parameters, in particular the drag and the character of the radar cross section are taken into account and fuzzy logic is used.
- Redesign of the digital electronics – signal and data processing – to use the latest components and give increased computing power.
The new ARTHUR cabin layout (left) and mounted on a 5-ton M1083 truck
ARTHUR has so far been delivered in two versions for different carriers. One is the Hägglunds Bv 206 articulated tracked vehicle as used for MAMBA. The other is a single cabin installation intended for cross-country trucks. For the new version of ARTHUR a new cabin has been designed. As with the Bv 206 version this contains the entire system including power generator on a single vehicle.
By the introduction of a three-axis antenna turntable the need for support legs has been eliminated. The cabin, which includes climate control and efficient air filtering for operation in hot climates, now has a gross weight of only four metric tons. Of the two operator workstations one is portable and can be operated inside the cabin or elsewhere via a fibre-optic cable.
The new version of ARTHUR is also suitable for integration in armoured vehicles such as Mowag Piranha III, due to a modular design and the three-axis antenna turntable.
The enhanced version of ARTHUR has gone through comprehensive live fire tests with highly satisfactory results.
Guns, mortars and rockets have been included in the tests. Bv 206 and truck versions are now in production for different customers.
An armoured version, of interest to several customers, is in a concept phase.
