A new set of flight trials for the Gabbiano radar recently came to a successful conclusion, with the medium power (20W) version of the radar with solid state amplifier and nose mounted antenna proving its capabilities on board AgustaWestland's AW139 helicopter.

The flight campaign confirmed the radar's performance and operational capabilities, including surveillance with Track While Scan (TWS), search and rescue, High Resolution Synthetic Aperture Antenna (SAR), Inverse Synthetic Aperture Antenna (ISAR), navigation with ground mapping and weather avoidance.

The Gabbiano's high level of performance was highlighted on a number of occasions during the trials, in one instance spotting a boat near Genova (at a distance of 100NM) and extracting an ISAR profile while flying over the Lombards Prealpi mountains.

The Gabbiano T20N is part of a family of airborne radars, available in versions characterised by transmission power (20W with a solid state transmitter or 200W with TWT transmitter) and configuration (nose mounted antenna or belly mounted antenna).

Since the product was launched onto the market two years ago, various versions of the Gabbiano radar have been selected by customers around the world, integrating the system on board the ATR42 MP, Beechcraft B350, AW139 and parts of costal radar surveillance systems.