Estonia completed its air surveillance system on the 27th of January of this year. The last part of this system to be activated was the final GM400 series radar designed by ThalesRaytheonSystems. This final radar system was installed at the Tõika air force base near Otepää. This location is in the southeastern part of Estonia, at 50 kilometers of the Russian border.
This is the second of two radars that Estonia now operates, the first one was installed on Muhu island in the Baltic Sea. Both radars are connected to the Baltic Air Surveillance Network (BALTNET) and NATO’s Air Command and Control System (ACCS). Estonia thus provides for a better awareness of the airspace above the Baltic states and a part of the EU and NATO territory.
The Ground-Master 400 (GM-400) radar system is a fully digital 3D active electronically scanned arraylong-range air defense radar, offering detection from very high to very low altitudes. It tracks a wide range of targets from highly maneuverable tactical aircraft flying below several hundred feet to the unconventional small radar crossection devices, such as UAVs or cruise missiles.
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| GM-400 radar in a mobile configuration |
The system can be set up by a four man crew in 30 minutes and can be remotely operated. The system fits in a 20 foot shipping container and weighs less than ten tons. The system can be rapidly deployed mounted on a 6x6 or 8x8 tactical truck and can be transported by a single C-130aircraft or a helicopter.
Although the GM-400 radar has an instrumental range of 470km have a detection range between 5 and 390 km with a maximum detection altitude of 30,5 km.
Estonia now has radar coverage of all of Estonia, all of Latvia, parts of northern Belarus and western Russia. The location of the second radar site, at the Tõika air force base, allows Estonia to monitor Russian air activity from the Pskov air force base to parts beyond Saint-Petersburg. The integration of the radar system in the NATO ACCS will also aid the Baltic Air Policing mission as Russian planes can now be monitored and tracked well before they reach the edges of the Baltic airspace, making interceptions easier.
The first radar site on Muhu island allows for similar air monitoring above the Baltic Sea.
