API Technologies to Manufacture Blighter® A400 Series Anti-UAV Air Security Radar
API Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: ATNY) (“API” or the “Company”), a leading provider of high performance RF, microwave, millimeterwave solutions, has extended its long running manufacturing partnership with Blighter Surveillance Systems (www.blighter.com), an electronic-scanning radar and sensor solution provider, with the announcement that it is to partner on the production of Blighter’s latest radar, the Blighter®A400 Series.
The Blighter A400 Series Ku band Doppler air security radar is designed to detect small and medium sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones up to 8km away. The Blighter A400 Series radars are modular non-rotating, electronic-scanning systems using power efficient PESA (passive electronically scanned array) and FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) technologies to provide industry leading levels of reliability and requiring zero maintenance. The radars allow all weather, 24-hour detection of fast and slow moving micro and mini UAV targets with unsurpassed ground clutter suppression.
“We are proud to have been part of the Blighter Surveillance Systems program since 2006,” said Matt Howchin, General Manager –Great Yarmouth, API Technologies Corp. “Our engineers’ in-depth understanding of the manufacturing process and expertise in RF and microwave, waveform generation, and digital signal processing products, has enabled us to consistently provide the high quality manufacturing essential for security products that will be in service, in some cases, for up to 15 years.”
Blighter’s UK designed and manufactured radars are used worldwide by commercial, government and defense customers for asset protection, national border security, homeland security, and critical infrastructure protection for airports, coastal surveillance, and in military applications. Blighter radar solutions are used at Heathrow and other international airports, by the British Army for force protection, and in numerous asset protection and border security applications, including monitoring the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ).
“API’s depth of experience with radar applications and high-reliability technology products has made them an ideal partner for us,” said Mark Radford, CEO, Blighter Surveillance Systems. “Having a strategic partnership with an established electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company – with a global footprint – is important as it enables us to scale up supply to meet growing worldwide demand.
“It also means that our engineers are freed up to work on design improvements of our core radar technology and to focus on systems integration. This was the case with the development of the Blighter A400 Series radars which were designed to meet an urgent operational requirement by security forces to combat the growing threat from malicious micro, mini and larger UAVs/drones. Out of this development came the recently launched Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS), the world’s first integrated radar, camera/tracking and RF inhibitor system.”
In support of the partnership with Blighter, API Technologies provides a full range of engineering and product lifecycle support. API Technologies’ Great Yarmouth facility currently holds MIL-PRF-38534 Class K and AS9100 Rev C certifications and has a dedicated and accredited UKAS test facility.
API Technologies has a long and successful heritage in the development and manufacturing of RF, microwave, millimeterwave, analog mixed signal, and power management solutions for military, commercial, and space applications. For more information, visit:http://micro.apitech.com or http://micro.apitech.co.uk.
