Aerospace technology company Selex ES has confirmed that it upgraded air traffic management radar in London and the south of England ahead of last week’s 2.6GHz 4G launches by Vodafone and O2.
Selex ES is responsible for a project that’ll see it upgrading more than half of the UK’s air traffic management S-band radar systems to avoid potential disruption from 4G mobile networks.
Air traffic control centres use radar systems that operate in the 2.7GHz band, which could be disrupted by the adjacent 2.6GHz 4G services. A ‘remediation’ solution for Selex ES radar equipment will allow operation in the 2.7MHz to 3.6MHz band, avoiding interference from 4G LTE services. Equipment from Selex ES is used for more than 50% of the UK’s air traffic management radar.
Eventually radar systems across the UK will be modified as part of the project, which has been contracted by the UK Ministry of Defence for military airports and is sponsored by the Department for Transport for civilian airports.
Mike Bradshaw, Executive Vice President of Customer Relationships for Selex ES’s security and smart systems division, said “We’ve delivered all of the modification kits to the MoD ahead of schedule and are progressing well towards having all of the nominated UK air traffic management radars modified by the September 30th deadline. The continued success of the programme will allow the UK government to roll out the 4G network on schedule while air traffic management radars across the UK continue to operate normally”.