Tel Aviv. The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unique Passive Coherent Location System (PCL), is operational. The company does not disclose who are the customers but confirmed that the system creates great interest in many armed forces. “It is a force multiplier and changes the way targets are located in different combat situations,” a company source told Raksha Anirveda.

The system that has been developed by ELTA, the IAI electronics subsidiary, enables the creation of an air situation picture that tracks non-emitting targets using non-cooperative transmitters. It detects and tracks aerial threats based on target reflection from non-cooperative transmissions from FM or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) towers. The reflections are received by one or a network of antennas, providing 3D real-time omnidirectional coverage for tracking of multiple targets in congested airborne traffic.

According to ELTA, the PCL system is simple to deploy and can be located on remote borders, as well as in urban areas. Installation can include one sensor or a cluster of sensors for redundancy and improved coverage of specific problematic areas. The sites are connected to the central PCL command and control processing unit via a dedicated data link. The new system is already deployable and provides real-time aerial mapping, of non-emitting threats.

An ELTA source said that the PCL system creates air situation picture and can be deployed independently or as an additional layer for air control radars, as part of a multi-disciplinary air situation picture.

-The writer is an International Roving Correspondent of the publication.