Weapon Locating and Battle Field Surveillance Radars

WLR is employed to locate the hostile artillery guns, mortars and rockets so that rapid counter bombardment can be resorted to in order to neutralise them

- LT GENERAL NARESH CHAND (RETD)

AIR DEFENCE, WEAPON LOCATING and BattleField Surveillance Radars are employed by the land forces. This article will focus only on Weapon Locating Radars (WLR) and BattleField Surveillance Radars (BFSR).

WLR

WLR is employed to locate the hostile artillery guns, mortars, and rockets so that rapid counter bombardment can be resorted to in order to neutralise them. Time is of the essence as hostile artillery can resort to shoot and scoot tactics. During an insurgency scenario, it greatly helps in locating them if the insurgents are resorting to artillery fire. The technology employed for WLR is radar-based arrays which detects and track the trajectory of round/mortar/rocket in various stages of the flight and then extrapolates the origin of the fire with the help of a computer. Earlier acoustic technology called ‘Sound Ranging’ was employed for WL but had limited range and was termed sound ranging however both the technologies can be used in tandem.

BFSR