Dynetics, whose GroundAware ground surveillance radar is designed to provide security for critical infrastructure, will soon unveil a new short-range, wide-field-of-view version of the system, company officials said Aug. 11.
The new variant, the GA360, will provide a 360-degree field of view and identify and track ground threats out to 500 to 700 meters with a single system. By contrast, the existing long-range radar, GroundAware Gen 2, has a 120-degree field of view out to multiple kilometers. In addition, the GA360’s price will be “considerably lower” than the Gen 2’s, said Mike Stokes, GroundAware’s product manager.
“There’s a niche in the market where many of the utilities that we deal with have smaller sites that they are in need of security for, but frankly, the long-range unit we offer is overkill,” Stokes said. And at larger sites that “have blind spots due to tree lines or hills and so forth, you can easily backfill the coverage in with this unit without expending the cost of an additional long-range unit.”
The GA360 will probably make its public debut at ASIS International’s security conference in Orlando, Fla., in mid-September, Stokes said.
Dynetics began developing GroundAware about six years ago to monitor perimeters and grounds for people, animals, vehicles and aircraft. It now has 12 radars deployed at airports and utilities in the United States, including Denver International Airport, said Lori Fridlin, client relations manager at Dynetics.
Other potential customers for GroundAware include border control agencies, prisons, schools and universities, large private estates, military agencies, and water authorities that oversee hydroelectric plants and dams.