Echodyne's MESA Radar: Revolutionizing
Mid-Range Multi-Mission Capability in Modern Warfare

Col (Retd) Robert Menti

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In today's rapidly evolving combat environments, the need for advanced sensing and protection technologies has never been more critical. The battlefield has become highly lethal and transparent, demanding innovative solutions that offer comprehensive protection while remaining cost-effective and scalable. Echodyne's next-generation Metamaterials Electronically Scanning Array (MESA) radar technology stands at the forefront of this revolution, providing true mid-range multi-mission capability at a significantly lower cost. This advancement enables end-users to exponentially increase attritable sensing capacity—a necessity for survival in contemporary operating environments.

Traditional Vehicle Protection Systems (VPS) have primarily focused on high-value platforms like tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs). However, recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored the urgent need for all platforms across military formations to possess some level of VPS capability. The threat landscape has expanded, and adversaries now employ a myriad of advanced air and ground threats that can target any vehicle, regardless of its role or position within a formation.

Echodyne's MESA-based sensors offer a solution to this pressing challenge. By providing critical on-the-move (OTM), 360-degree detection capability, these sensors enable low-cost VPS when integrated into a networked System of Systems (SoS). This approach allows for the proliferation of “good enough” protection across all platforms at echelon, addressing a vastly larger requirement than the Department of Defence (DoD) currently accommodates. The innovative nature of MESA technology ensures that even cost-constrained platforms can benefit from advanced sensing capabilities without the prohibitive expense associated with traditional systems.

One of the standout features of Echodyne's MESA radar is its multi-domain sensing capability. This technology consolidates several critical functions into a single, compact radar system. Capabilities include:

• On-the-Move Counter-Small Unmanned Systems (C-sUAS): Detecting and tracking small drones and unmanned ground vehicles that pose significant threats on the modern battlefield.
• Air/Ground Force Protection: Providing situational awareness and early warning against aerial and terrestrial threats.
• Maritime/Littoral Surveillance: Enhancing detection and tracking capabilities in coastal and maritime environments.
• Precision Tracking Capabilities (PTC): Offering high-resolution tracking for engaging fast-moving and agile targets.

By integrating these functions, Echodyne's radar systems reduce the need for multiple specialized sensors, thereby lowering the overall system weight, power consumption, and cost. Importantly, these radars are not theoretical or in developmental stages—they are in full-rate production today, ready to contribute significantly to increasing capacity at scale for multiple services.

Echodyne's low-cost PTC has been combat-proven and is currently deployed in contingency environments. These capabilities enable augmented effector systems to engage small drones and ground threats effectively. The range of effectors compatible with MESA radar includes:

• Machine Guns and Medium Caliber Cannons: Traditional kinetic weapons that can be guided more accurately with precise targeting data.
• Unguided and Guided Rockets: Enhanced effectiveness through improved targeting information.
• Very Short-Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) Missiles: Increased interception success rates against low-altitude aerial threats.
• High Energy Lasers (HEL) and High-Powered Microwave (HPM) Systems: Directed energy weapons that require precise tracking to neutralize targets effectively.

The integration of MESA sensors adds critical depth and resiliency to military formations. Their ubiquity and dual-use nature mean they can be deployed widely without excessive cost, ensuring that even units at the lowest echelons have access to advanced protection.

Enhancing Layered Defensive Capabilities

The modern battlespace's lethality and transparency necessitate a re-evaluation of defensive strategies. Coupling on-the-move, spectrum-sensitive sensors like Echodyne's MESA radar with Counter-Unmanned Systems (C-UxS) enabled effectors—already fielded or available for immediate deployment—can significantly enhance a formation's layered defensive capability. This synergy allows for:

• Greater Dispersion and Flexibility: Small units can operate at increased distances from one another without sacrificing mutual support.
• Self-Protection Against Advanced Threats: Units can defend themselves against a variety of threats, including small drones, guided munitions, and ground assaults.
• Rapid Response to Emerging Threats: The agility to detect and engage new types of threats as they appear on the battlefield.

By expanding the defensive envelope of each unit, formations can operate more effectively in highly lethal environments, reducing vulnerability and increasing mission success rates.

A New Perspective on Formation-Based VPS

Formation-based VPS requires a broader perspective than traditional platform-centric protection models. It must account for the collective defence of all assets within a formation, extending beyond the primary focus on defeating incoming tank rounds, Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM), and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). This approach includes:

• Comprehensive C-sUAS Capability: Ensuring all formations and nodes can detect and counter small unmanned aerial systems.
• Elimination of Rear-Area Sanctuaries: Recognizing that adversaries can strike anywhere, necessitating 360-degree protection even in areas previously considered safe.
• Adaptation to New Threat Realities: Acknowledging that daily reports from conflict zones like Russia and Ukraine highlight the evolving nature of warfare that affects all U.S. services.

By adopting this wider perspective, military forces can better prepare for the complexities of modern combat, ensuring that all elements within a formation are adequately protected.

The need for cost-effective, scalable defines solutions extends beyond U.S. forces. Allies, partners, and proxies often face significant resource constraints yet operate in environments where the threat levels are just as high, if not higher. Echodyne's MESA radar provides:

• Affordable Multi-Domain Force Protection OTM Capability: A critical requirement for users who cannot invest in expensive, high-end systems.
• Dual-Use Technology: Sensors that can be employed in both military and civilian applications, facilitating easier export and adoption.
• Low Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C): Making the technology accessible to a broader range of platforms and users.

By equipping allied forces with these capabilities, the collective security and effectiveness of coalition operations are enhanced, contributing to global stability and mutual defence objectives.

Empowering Uncrewed Platforms with VPS

The future battlefield will see an increased reliance on uncrewed platforms—autonomous vehicles and drones that augment manned systems. For these platforms to fulfil their roles effectively, they too require some level of VPS capability. Echodyne's MESA radar ensures that uncrewed systems can:

• Stay in the Fight: By detecting and avoiding or countering threats, uncrewed platforms can continue to support operations without frequent losses.
  
• Provide Critical Augmentation: Enhancing the capabilities of crewed platforms by extending sensing, communication, and engagement ranges.
• Maintain Resiliency and Survivability: Even as attritable assets, these platforms must offer a balance between cost and effectiveness.

The principle that “quantity has a quality all its own” is particularly relevant in large-scale, protracted conflicts. Deploying numerous, capable uncrewed systems can overwhelm adversaries and provide strategic advantages without incurring unacceptable costs.

Protecting our nation's service members—and those of our allies and partners—demands critical thinking and swift action. The small, highly mobile, and dispersed formations expected to dominate future conflicts require VPS solutions tailored to their operational realities. It is imperative to:

• Adapt VPS Thinking: Moving beyond legacy systems and doctrines to embrace innovative technologies like MESA radar.
• Overcome Bureaucratic Hurdles: Recognizing that delays caused by programmatic challenges can have dire consequences on the battlefield.
• Field “Good Enough” Solutions Quickly: Prioritizing the rapid deployment of effective technologies over the pursuit of perfection.

Unlike the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) threat that caught forces off-guard in Iraq and Afghanistan, the current and emerging threats are visible today. Failing to prepare and adapt could result in unnecessary casualties and mission failures.

Conclusion: Embracing Innovation for Enhanced Protection

Echodyne's next-generation MESA radar technology offers a transformative approach to mid-range multi-mission capability. By enabling true multi-domain sensing at a significantly lower cost, it allows for the exponential growth of attritable sensing capacity essential for survival in today's lethal operating environments. The integration of MESA sensors into VPS, uncrewed platforms, and formation-wide defence strategies represents a critical step forward in military preparedness.

As threats continue to evolve, so must our approaches to defence. Embracing innovative technologies like Echodyne's MESA radar is not just advantageous—it is essential. By acting decisively and prioritizing the rapid fielding of “good enough” solutions, we can ensure that our service members, allies and partners are equipped to face the challenges of modern warfare effectively and safely.

For more information please visit:
https://echodyne.com