General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical reconnaissance radars, today announced that it has successfully demonstrated the ability to detect slow moving targets with a two-channel version of its Lynx® Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

"The Dual Beam feature enhances Lynx's GMTI [ground moving target indicator] capability, enabling it also to identify 'slow movers' with greater precision accuracy than the existing configuration," said Linden P. Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.  "It further expands the proven tactical value of Lynx SAR, providing operators with a more powerful tool for tracking slow movers and cuing onboard EO/IR [electrical-optical/infrared] video sensors."            

The Lynx radar was modified under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Dual Beam Development Program.  Under the program, a Space Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) upgrade to the baseline Lynx radar was developed in cooperation with BAE Systems to cancel the main beam GMTI clutter, thus enabling the detection of slow movers at tactically significant ranges.  Flight tests confirm the Dual Beam Lynx radar's capability to perform STAP processing and detect actual and simulated movers in real-time.