Raytheon Company has been chosen by the Netherlands Ministry of Defence to upgrade the air traffic control radar system at the Royal Netherlands Air Force base in the town of Woensdrecht with technology to mitigate the adverse effects on radar performance caused by wind turbines.
Raytheon will implement the modification by the end of 2012, the first operational implementation of this technology. Wind turbines' rotating blades generate large, moving, false targets that can deluge radars, rendering it difficult for controllers to discriminate between false and genuine aircraft targets. The upgrade comes via a combination of hardware and software changes to the primary surveillance radar system. These changes nullify the presence of wind turbines and significantly improve the probability of detection of aircraft targets, both above and beyond wind farms.
Raytheon will implement the modification by the end of 2012, the first operational implementation of this technology. Wind turbines' rotating blades generate large, moving, false targets that can deluge radars, rendering it difficult for controllers to discriminate between false and genuine aircraft targets. The upgrade comes via a combination of hardware and software changes to the primary surveillance radar system. These changes nullify the presence of wind turbines and significantly improve the probability of detection of aircraft targets, both above and beyond wind farms.