MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. Radio-photonic radars for unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft will be created in Russia in several years to get an accurate target image, the press office of RTI Group told TASS on Monday.
As was reported earlier, radio-photonic radars are expected to be mounted on Russian sixth-generation fighter jets. This station sees considerably further than a conventional radar and will be capable of building actually a photographic image of the target that will be identified automatically.
As the press office said, RTI Group is completing R&D work in 2018 on creating a mockup of the X-band radio-photonic radar. Following its results, specialists "will determine a principal scheme of building the radio-photonic locator," which will make it possible "in several years to build prototypes of super-light and small-size radars for unmanned aerial vehicles."
Such radars "will be able to provide radio wave imaging when an image has greater details with the possibility to identify the target type," the RTI Group press office said.
Such radars will have a considerably smaller weight and size and consume less power both on drones and aircraft.
Russia starts producing radar components
The new station will generate a radar signal by converting photonic crystal laser energy. The production of such lasers is already beginning in Russia, the press office said.
"RTI Group is launching the first technological line in Russia for the production of lasers for making promising radio-photonic radars," the press office said.
RTI Group CEO Maxim Kuzyuk was quoted by the press office as saying that "we in RTI are seeking to make the production cycle of integral radio-photonic circuits for radars fully local to participate effectively in the rapidly developing area, which can become a guarantor of the country’s security."
RTI Group has been carrying out work on developing radio-photonic radars on its own initiative for several years now.