Counter-battery fire is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements, including their target acquisition, as well as their command and control components. Counter-battery arrangements and responsibilities vary between nations but involve target acquisition, planning and control, and counter-fire. Counter-battery fire rose to prominence in World War I.
A counter-battery radar or weapon tracking radar is a radar system that detects artillery projectiles fired by one or more guns, howitzers, mortars or rocket launchers and, from their trajectories, locates the position on the ground of the weapon that fired it. Such radars are a subclass of the wider class of target acquisition radars.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is an X-band electronically steered pulse-Doppler 3D radar system used to alert and cue Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces. It is currently produced by Raytheon Missiles & Defense.
Hughes AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder weapon locating system is a mobile radar system developed in the mid-late 1970s by Hughes Aircraft Company and manufactured by Northrop Grumman and ThalesRaytheonSystems, achieving initial operational capability in May 1982. The system is a "weapon-locating radar", designed to detect and track incoming mortar, artillery and rocket fire to determine the point of origin for counter-battery fire. It is currently in service at battalion and higher levels in the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, Australian Army, Portuguese Army, Turkish Army, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The SLC-2 Radar is a Chinese active electronically scanned array counter-battery radar designed to locate hostile artillery, rocket and ground-to-ground missile launchers immediately after firing, and to support friendly artillery by guiding counter-battery fire.
The Type 704 is a counter-battery radar designed to accurately locate the hostile artillery, rocket and ground-to-ground missile launcher immediately after the firing of enemy, and support friendly artillery by providing guidance of counter fire. Built by NORINCO, it was first displayed publicly in 1988's ASIADEX defence show.
ARTHUR is a counter-battery radar system originally developed jointly for and in close co-operation with the Norwegian and Swedish armed forces by Ericsson Microwave Systems in both Sweden and Norway. It is also used by the British Army, under the names mobile artillery monitoring battlefield radar or mobile artillery monitoring battlefield asset (MAMBA).
Counter rocket, artillery, and mortar, abbreviated C-RAM or counter-RAM, is a set of systems used to detect and/or destroy incoming rockets, artillery, and mortars before they hit their targets, or provide early warning.
The Sri Lanka Artillery (SLA) is the artillery arm of the Sri Lanka Army. It is made up of ten regular regiments and two volunteer regiments. The SLA is headquartered at Panagoda Cantonment, Panagoda.
Radar MASINT is a subdiscipline of measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) and refers to intelligence gathering activities that bring together disparate elements that do not fit within the definitions of signals intelligence (SIGINT), imagery intelligence (IMINT), or human intelligence (HUMINT).
The Swathi weapon locating radar is a mobile artillery-locating, phased array radar developed by India. This counter-battery radar is designed to detect and track incoming artillery and rocket fire to determine the point of origin for counter-battery fire.
AN/TPQ-53 Quick Reaction Capability Radar is a mobile active electronically scanned array counter-battery radar system manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The radar is specifically designed to locate the firing positions of both rocket and mortar launchers. The AN/TPQ-53 has a maximum detection range of 38 miles / 60 km and has an operating frequency of 2 - 4 GHz.
The AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) is the United States Marine Corps next-generation Air Surveillance/Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (ATC) Radar. The mobile active electronically scanned array radar system is being developed by Northrop Grumman and was expected to reach initial operating capability in August 2016.
The Radar Set AN/MPQ-4 was a US Army counter-battery radar primarily used to find the location of enemy mortars and larger artillery in a secondary role. Built by General Electric, it first entered service in 1958, replacing the earlier and much simpler AN/MPQ-10. The MPQ-4 could determine the location of an enemy mortar in as little as 20 seconds by observing a single round, whereas the MPQ-10 required several rounds to be launched and could take 4 to 5 minutes to take a "fix". The MPQ-4 remained one of the primary US counter-battery systems through the late 1970s until it was replaced by passive electronically scanned array radars like the AN/TPQ-36.
Aistyonok is a portable counter-battery radar system developed and produced by the state-owned Almaz-Antey corporation for the Russian Armed Forces.
Zoopark-1 1L219 is a counter-battery radar system developed by Almaz-Antey for the Soviet Armed Forces. It is a mobile active electronically scanned array radar for the purpose of enemy field-artillery acquisition. The system can detect mortar shells at a distance of up to 20 kilometers, up to 30 kilometers for artillery shells and up to 50 kilometers for ground-to-air rockets, determining location of origin of a fire. Moving ground targets can be detected at a distance of up to 40 kilometers. It reached initial operating status in 1989.
COBRA COunter Battery RAdar is a Counter-battery radar system developed jointly by Thales, Airbus Defence and Space and Lockheed Martin for the French, British and German Armed Forces. It is a mobile Active electronically scanned array 3D radar based on a wheeled chassis for the purpose of enemy field artillery acquisition.
The Ground Master 200 Multi-Mission is a family of medium-range radars manufactured by Thales Nederland. Benifiting from the technology of the land-based Ground Master 200 and naval NS100/200 radar systems, this series was developed by the Dutch subsidiary for, and in consultation with, the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA). The GM200 MM family features 4D Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology, which is a ‘dual-axis multi-beam’ technology providing flexibility in both elevation and bearing.
The Centurion C-RAM, also called the Land Phalanx Weapon System (LPWS), is an American Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM) air defense artillery system. The system was developed in 2004, during and after the Iraq War identified a weakness in ground-based anti-projectile artillery. The system is produced by Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Oshkosh Corporation.
