[Avionics Magazine 01-20-2018] The Swiss Air Force is upgrading its master radars as part of its FLORAKO modernization program. FLORAKO is the radar system used for military and civil aviation surveillance in Swiss airspace, first introduced by the Swiss Air Force in 2004.
Under a $79 million life extension contract, Thales engineers will develop a new radar signal and data processing and upgrade the antenna system, while, integration teams will carry out testing and qualification phases. The upgraded radars will be delivered to the Swiss Air Force one by one as soon as their performance has been successfully verified.
According to an update on the program released by Thales, the upgrade will take around 60 months, with a 24 month development phase leveraging existing radar technologies.