A long-range ground surveillance radar from Thales Germany has been unveiled at an international exhibition in the United Arab Emirates.

The Thales Ground Observer 80 -- a follow-on to the company's successful BOR-A series radar -- is specifically designed for border surveillance, target acquisition and indirect fire adjustment and integration to surveillance/reconnaissance vehicles.

"Our engineers have outdone themselves with the GO 80, giving us the best long-range ground surveillance radars on the market," said Hans Jochen Soelter, in charge of Thales group's Surface Radar activities in Germany. "Not only does the GO 80 reach farther but it is also more efficient and much lighter than any product of its category on the market today.

"It only uses half of the prime power and provides higher reliability, along with significantly higher mean-time-between-failure."

The GO 80 can detect people at ranges up to 15 miles and other small targets as far as 18 miles. Vehicles can be detected at a distance of 37 miles.

The Ground Observer 80 comprises an internal Track While Scan tracker which allows for tracking of up to 50 targets in parallel during normal surveillance operation. Target recognition is aided by an automatic target classification function.