Evaluation Engineering - 34

THERE IS LESS
'UNDER THE RADAR'
THESE DAYS
By Ken Cormier, Managing Editor

	 When a German scientist discovered
in 1886 that radio waves could be
reflected off solid objects, he probably did
not foresee how that technology would
revolutionize commerce, warfare, space
exploration, weather forecasting, transportation, law enforcement, and more.
The advent of autonomous vehicles is very
likely about to widen radar's use in the
near future, to ubiquitous levels. LiDAR,
sometimes called 3D laser scanning, uses
mostly infrared light. The technology has
been used to make high-resolution maps,
and has been used in surveying, geomatics, archaeology, geology, seismology, and
more. Here are some recent news items
on the subjects.

to reach the ground, often due to dense
foliage.
In a recent airborne LiDAR survey,
archaeologists discovered tremendous
architecture at Aquada Fenix (Tabasco,
Mexico). The site was "hidden in plain
sight". Even locals were oblivious to its
large presence, more than 30 feet high, but
its immense horizontal dimensions allowed it to escape detection for centuries.
According to Colorado State University
anthropology professor Christopher
Fisher, "In 45 minutes of flying, the LiDAR
team accomplished a decade's worth of
archaeological survey".1

LiDAR leads Way to Lost Worlds

Under terms of a $13.2 million order,
submarine combat systems experts at
Lockheed Martin are building additional AN/BLQ-10 EW systems for U.S.
Navy submarines. The system automatically detects, classifies, pinpoints, and
identifies potentially hostile radar and
communications signals at sea. The AN/
BLQ-10 is for Virginia-, Los Angeles-, and
Seawolf-class fast-attack submarines,
Ohio-class conventional guided-missile
submarines, and future Columbia-class
ballistic-missile submarines.
The AN/BLQ-10 processes signals
from the submarine's imaging mast, or
periscope when the boat is at periscope
depth. It provides threat warning to
avoid counter-detection and collision;
determines the number and location of
targets for subsequent prosecution; and
conducts intelligence, surveillance, and

Though it is widely known for its use
in advanced driver-assistance systems
(ADAS) in autonomous vehicles, LiDAR's
pulsed-laser measuring system is being
used to spearhead searches for the vestiges of lost civilizations by archaeologists.
In this use, the laser light illuminates the
forest floor and measures the reflection
with special sensors, gauging the time it
takes for the pulses to return to the instrument. They then plot the data with
GPS and computers to construct a 3D
map of the search area.
According to National Geographic,
LiDAR's strength lies in its ability to
discern miniscule surface disparities
that can indicate small sites like graves,
or grand-scale edifices like a recentlydiscovered Mayan ceremonial ground.
Its limitation is that it sometimes fails

34

EVALUATION ENGINEERING SEPTEMBER 2020

Lockheed Builds Radar Detection
Systems for U.S. Navy

reconnaissance (ISR) to support a fleet
or battle group.2

Ground-Penetrating radar
system detects hidden IEDs
Officials of the Army Contracting
Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Md., announced a $200.2 million order
to Chemring Sensors and Electronics
Systems (CSES) in Dulles, Va. in May
to develop and build Husky Mounted
Detection System (HMDS) kits, spare
parts, maintenance and training. The
system will be employed to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) such as
underbelly IEDs and antitank landmines
in primary and secondary roadways.
The system is a combination of the CSES
VISOR 2500 ground-penetrating radar and
the Husky vehicle from Critical Solutions
International in Carrollton, Texas. The
CSES VISOR 2500 detects metallic and
non-metallic explosive hazards, pressure
plates, and antitank mines. It combines
advanced real-time automatic-target-recognition algorithms, integrated metallic
and non-metallic threat detection, automatic precision marking, and software.3
References

1.	All About Circuits, "Archaeologists Employ
LiDAR to Uncover the Secrets of Long-Lost
Empires," June 9, 2020
2.	Military & Aerospace Electronics, "Navy
wants more AN/BLQ-10 submarine electronic
warfare (EW) systems to detect hostile radar
signals at sea," May 1, 2020
3.	Military & Aerospace Electronics, "Army
orders ground-penetrating radar system from
CSES for detecting hidden IEDs in $200.2
million deal," May 13, 2020

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