Lockheed picks Cambridge Pixel for Royal Navy’s navigation system software modules

Cambridge Pixel, a British radar and sensor software provider, has been selected by Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems UK to supply software modules for radar scan conversion, target tracking and radar fusion, for integration into the company’s new radar system.

This navigation radar system – along with Kelvin Hughes solid-state SharpEye radar transceivers – will be fitted to more than 60 Royal Navy platforms over the next five years.

The new equipment is part of the Navigation Radar Programme (NRP), a £44m Royal Navy upgrade awarded to Lockheed Martin by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in January 2016.

Cambridge Pixel’s software ‘modules of expertise’ will be integrated into Lockheed Martin’s Naval Vigilance Radar system. The radar scan conversion module receives radar data from the Kelvin Hughes SharpEye radar and creates a radar image for display with underlay and overlay graphics.

The radar tracking module processes the radar data to automatically acquire and track targets, and the radar fusion software combines tracks from multiple radars on the ships with AIS (automatic identification system) transponder data and other sensor data into a single, integrated data source.

To assist Lockheed Martin during the development and test phase of the new navigation radar system, Cambridge Pixel said it would also supply radar simulation and recording capabilities from its established SPx product family. The RDR radar data recorder captures raw video from the sensor as ASTERIX CAT-240, along with AIS data and navigation data.