Transportable ATC Radars Provide Service in Hard-to-Reach Places

What do you do when you need to replace air traffic control radar systems that have been in operation since the 1950's? If you're the Canadian Armed Forces and your radar systems have been working perfectly over the past four decades, you go back to that same radar supplier.

The GCA-2000 transportable air traffic control radar system from ITT Industries' Gilfillan Division has also been selected by Canada's Air Communication and Control Squadron to support the worldwide deployment of Canadian forces into austere locations such as the Arctic and to provide tactical air traffic control services on demand.

The GCA-2000--Ground Controlled Approach System--family of radars is the new standard against which all other landing systems are measured. The GCA-2000 is the latest generation tactical and fixed-base, all-weather surveillance and precision approach radar developed by Gilfillan.

The cost effective, solid state GCA-2000 is designed to control the immediate area around an airport or air base. The GCA-2000 is provided infixed, transportable and mobile versions to satisfy all operational scenarios including the MPN-25 version for military use. They are the perfect choice for environments ranging from the dynamic battlefield to the more benign fixed installations. The GCA-2000 is the only system of its type to be able to change runways to any one of six reset touchdown points in less than one minute.

Fully ICAO compliant, the GCA-2000 provides remotely controlled multi-runway coverage and superior height finding capabilities in either commercial or military air traffic applications.

The ASR range of the GCA-2000 is up to 30 nautical miles. The PAR range is up to 20 nautical miles--together, forming a complete airport system. The GCA-2000 is the only active aperture landing system in operation around the world. Key to its design are Gallium Arsenide Transmit/Receive Modules. Nearly 200 of these modules make up the azimuth and elevation antennas. These modules are air cooled for low maintenance. The solid-state design of the GCA-2000 provides a reliability superior to any other tactical PAR. It incorporates redundancies for fail-soft protection and makes maximum use of commercial-off-the-shelf hardware. Extensive Built-in-Test provides fault isolation to the replaceable unit level for ease of maintenance. Plus, it eliminates the need for external test equipment.

The PAR-2000 configuration of the GCA-2000 is currently in operational use by the Brazilian Air Force and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force. The military version, the MPN-25, has been delivered to the U.S. Air Force for use as a rapid deployment landing system and has been ordered by the Republic of Turkey for their rapid deployment requirements.

Gilfillan, a unit of ITT Industries, provides state-of-the-art surveillance, multifunction and air traffic control radar systems for US and international

land and maritime applications. Gilfillan is also a leader in the development

of miniaturized active array antenna modules and subsystems for sensor

and communications applications.