“Much like Israel’s successful Iron Dome radar technology, the Medium Ranger Radar system will be able to instantly track enemy fire aimed at Canadian Armed Forces personnel and help keep them safe during operations,” Canada’s Defense Minister Jason Kenney was quoted as saying.
The new Canadian radar systems will be capable of simultaneously identifying multiple “airborne threats,” tracking “hostile indirect fire,” locating enemy positions as well as calculating the “point of impact of a projectile,” according to the defense department.
Canadian defense supplier Rheinmetall Canada Inc. has won contracts to produce some 10 Medium Range Radar systems worth up to $243.3 million. It will work with a subcontractor of Israel Aerospace Industries, ELTA Systems Ltd., to receive the radar technology as early as 2017.
“The system is flexible enough to meet a wide range of missions. It is air transportable, is highly mobile, and is rapidly deployable. Users can remotely operate the system through its integrated networking capability,” the statement read. “In addition, it can work day and night under all weather conditions to generate a real-time understanding of air traffic above a battlefield.”
The Israeli Iron Dome is a missile defense system that has been in use since 2011. The all-weather air defense system was developed to protect the country from a potential nuclear threats from Iran, as well as Syria and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. Additionally, the Iron Dome was used during Israel’s summer 2014 military campaign in Gaza against Hamas forces, and had a 90-percent success rate over the 50-day conflict.
