ARTHUR (military) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

ARTHUR is an abbreviation for mobile "Artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

Hunting Radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

" system developed in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. This field artillery

Field artillery

Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, long range, short range and extremely long range target engagement....

acquisition radar was developed for the primary role as the core element of a brigade

Brigade

A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...

or division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

level counter battery sensor system. It can also be used for peace support operations. The vehicle carrying the radar is usually a Bandvagn 206

Bandvagn 206

Bandvagn 206 is a tracked articulated, all-terrain carrier developed by Hägglunds for the Swedish Army. It consists of two units, with all four tracks powered...

developed and produced by Hägglunds; the radar is developed by Ericsson

Ericsson

Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...

. Its cost is estimated at 48 million Swedish kronor

Swedish krona

The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...

per unit.

In June 2006, Ericsson sold the greater part of Ericsson Microwave Systems to SAAB

Saab

Saab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. From 1947 to 1990 it was the parent company of automobile manufacturer Saab Automobile, and between 1968 and 1995 the company was in a merger with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania, known as Saab-Scania.-History:"Svenska...

, which it intends to rename Saab Microwave Systems.

Deployment

The ARTHUR detects hostile artillery by tracking projectiles in flight. The original ARTHUR can locate guns at 15 - 20 km and 120 mm mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

s at 30 - 35 km with a circular error probable

Circular error probable

In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision...

of 0.45% of range. This is accurate enough for effective counter-battery fire by friendly artillery batteries

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

. ARTHUR can operate as a stand-alone medium-range Weapons Locating Radar or a long-range weapon locating system, consisting of two to four radars working in coordination. This flexibility enables the system to maintain a constant surveillance

Surveillance

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

of an area of interest.

The upgraded ARTHUR Mod B meets the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

's MAMBA

MAMBA

MAMBA stands for Mobile Artillery Monitoring Battlefield Asset, a counter-battery radar operated by the Royal Artillery.-See also:*Artillery Surveillance and Target Acquisition*CoBRa*ASP-References:...

requirement for locating guns, mortars or rockets. MAMBA locates guns at 20 - 25 km and 120 mm mortars at 35 - 40 km with a circular probable error of 0.35% of range. MAMBA was successfully used by the British Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

ARTHUR Mod C has a larger antenna, it can detect a mortar bomb at 55 km, shell at 31 km rockets at 50 - 60 km depending on their size and locate targets at a rate of 100 per minute, CEP 0.2% of range for guns and rockets and 0.1% for mortars.

It can be carried by a C-130 or slung under a heavy lift helicopter such as a Chinook

CH-47 Chinook

The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s...

. Its air mobility allows it for use by light and rapid reaction forces such as airborne and marine units.

Nordic Battle Group

The use of the ARTHUR in Nordic Battle Groups will primarily concentrate on preventing the use of artillery barrage

Barrage

Barrage may refer to:In music* Barrage , a Canadian violin ensemble, or* Barrage , their self-titled debut albumIn engineering...

s in civilian areas, since the radar can identify an artillery unit guilty of targeting civilians. It will also be used to warn friendly mission troops of incoming indirect fire

Indirect fire

Indirect fire means aiming and firing a projectile in a high trajectory without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire...

Operational modes

ARTHUR can be operated in two main modes: Locating and Fire direction. Locating is used to determine the location of the guns, mortars of rocket launchers that fired and their target area. Fire direction is used to adjust the fire of own artillery onto target coordinates.

Locating

When locating enemy artillery, the radar tracks the up-going trajectory of shells, calculates their points of origin and impact and, with other information, displays it to the radar operator(s). Depending on national tactics, techniques, procedures, the commander's orders and the situation, this information may be used to alert any troops in the impact area and engage the hostile batteries with counter-battery fire. If the users have digital communications networks these messages may be sent automatically.

The ARTHUR can determine whether the artillery piece is of artillery

Field artillery

-type, rocket

Rocket artillery

Rocket artillery is a type of artillery equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or mortars.Types of rocket artillery pieces include multiple rocket launchers.-History:...

-type or mortar

Mortar (weapon)

-type based upon the curve of the trajectory, the munition's speed, and its range.

Fire direction

When in Fire direction mode the radar calculates the expected impact location of the friendly fire. From this corrections are calculated and reported to hit the target coordinates.

Sweden also uses the radar for 'fall of shot' calibration. However, other western armies would consider it insufficiently accurate for the purpose and use muzzle velocity radars mounted on guns for far more accurate results.

Threats

Radars are easy to detect and locate if the enemy has the necessary ELINT/ESM capability. The consequences of this detection are likely to be attack by artillery fire or aircraft (including anti-radiation missiles) or ECM. In other circumstances ground attack with direct fire or short range indirect fire are the main threat. The usual measures against the first are using a radar horizon

Radar horizon

The radar Horizon is a critical area of performance for aircraft detection systems that is defined by the distance at which the radar beam raise enough above the Earth surface to make detection of a target at low level impossible. It is associated with the low elevation region of performance and...

to screen from ground based detection, minimising transmission time, deploying radars singly and moving frequently. Swedish ARTHUR units usually operate in groups of three that guard the immediate surroundings.

Users

Known users are Sweden, Norway, Denmark (being phased out under the last agreement for the Danish Defence), Canada (leased), Italy (leased), Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Singapore, UK (leased Mod A until MAMBA available). South Korea has reportedly purchased ARTHUR Mod C in 2007, in 2011 Saab received a follow up order.

External links

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