The AN/TPS-43 is a transportable air search

3D radar 3D radar provides for radar ranging and direction in three dimensions. In addition to range, the more common two-dimensional radar provides only azimuth for direction, whereas the 3D radar also provides elevation. Applications include weather rada ...

produced in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

originally by

Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...

's Defense and Electronic Division, which was later purchased by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

. It is used primarily for

early warning An early warning system is a warning system that can be implemented as a Poset, chain of information communication systems and comprises sensors, Detection theory, event detection and decision support system, decision subsystems for early identi ...

and tactical control, often for control over an associated

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

battery or

airfield An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

. It is designed to be transported in two M35 cargo trucks and easily air-transportable on two pallets. The TPS-43 uses multiple

feed horn A feed horn (or feedhorn) is a small horn antenna used to couple a waveguide to e.g. a parabolic dish antenna or offset dish antenna for reception or transmission of microwaves. A typical application is the use for satellite television rec ...

s and an organ-pipe scanner to rapidly scan its

pencil beam In optics, a pencil or pencil of rays, also known as a pencil beam or narrow beam, is a geometric construct (pencil of half-lines) used to describe a Light beam, beam or portion of a beam of electromagnetic radiation or charged subatomic particl ...

vertically while the entire antenna system rotates to scan in azimuth. By comparing the relative power of a return in one or more of the vertical feed horns, the target altitude can be determined. Since its introduction in 1966 it has undergone many modifications. In later versions, the organ-pipe was replaced by a

stripline In electronics, stripline is a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) transmission line medium invented by Robert M. Barrett of the Air Force Cambridge Research Centre in the 1950s. Stripline is the earliest form of planar transmission line. De ...

matrix to produce

beamforming Beamforming or spatial filtering is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception. This is achieved by combining elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at particular angles ...

that had the same output pattern but had no moving parts. Many more upgrades were made to the transmitter and receiver as

solid state electronics Solid-state electronics are semiconductor electronics: electronic equipment that use semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes and integrated circuits (ICs). The term is also used as an adjective for devices in which semiconductor electr ...

were able to handle increased power loads. Among its notable uses were two examples used by the

Argentine Air Force The Argentine Air Force (, or simply ''FAA'') is the air force of Argentina and one of three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. In 2018, it had 13,837 military and 6,900 civilian personnel. FAA commander in chief is Brigadie ...

that were moved to the

Falkland Island The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape ...

s during the 1982

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

. The example at

Port Stanley Airport Port Stanley Airport , also merely known as Stanley Airport, is a small civil airport in the Falkland Islands, located from the capital, Stanley. This airport is the only civilian airport in the islands with a paved runway. However, the m ...

survived two attacks by AGM-45 Shrike missiles before being captured by British forces. It was repaired, upgraded, and then used by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

for many years.

Description

In accordance with the

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

(JETDS), the "''AN/TPS-43''" designation represents the 43rd design of an Army-Navy

electronic device Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

for ground transportable search radar system. The JETDS system also now is used to name all

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

electronic systems. The AN/TPS-43 is a ground-based, non-fixed (i.e.: transportable) search radar. The entire system can be broken down and packed into two M35 trucks for road transport. An updated version replacing the original shaped reflector and organ-pipe scanner with a

phased array antenna In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving th ...

was originally known as the TPS-43E2, but emerged as a much more modern system and was renamed the

AN/TPS-75 The AN/TPS-75 is a transportable passive electronically scanned array air search 3D radar produced in the United States. It was originally designated the TPS-43E2. Although the antenna is a radically new design from the AN/TPS-43, the radar van ...

. TPS-75 is the current transportable air control and warning (AC&W) radar used by the United States Air Force.

Variants

In addition to the basic TPS-43 several variants were developed. * TPS-43A (antenna tilt; new IFF) * TPS-43B (enlarged shelter; changes to transmitter) * TPS-43C / 43CX (increased reliability; IFF improvements) * TPS-43D / 43DX (ISLS added; maximum detection range increased) * TPS-43E (major redesign; improvements to electronics, mechanics and shelter) * TPS-43F / subvariants V1 to V6 (major redesign; enlarged shelter, improved electronics; increased reliability) * TPS-43G (4MW version designed for Pakistan) * TPS-43M (improved electronics; increased dynamic range; improved IFF incorporating several modules in a single unit) * TPS-430

Operational history

AN-TPS-43E_tactical_three-dimensional_radar_system

The AN/TPS-43 completed development in 1963 and entered US service in 1968. This radar was deployed by the

during the 1982

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

and survived two British attacks with AGM-45 Shrike anti radar missiles on May 31 and June 3. One of the radars was captured by British forces after the Argentine surrender and deployed at

RAF Buchan Remote Radar Head Buchan or RRH Buchan is an air defence radar station operated by the Royal Air Force. It is located at Stirling Hill, south of Peterhead on the Aberdeenshire coast of northeast Scotland. The unit is based at the operations sit ...

. Another set installed at

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

, in the mainland, was used to guide Argentine attacks on the British fleet.

Users

- In the early 1980s six sets were purchased, one was lost in the Falklands War. *

Bangladesh Air Force The Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) () is the aerial warfare branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The air force is primarily responsible for air defence of Bangladesh's sovereign territory as well as providing air support to the Bangladesh Army a ...

- 4 (Status Uncertain) Trade Registers
. Armstrade.sipri.org. Retrieved 23 December 2017. *

Spanish Air and Space Force The Spanish Air and Space Force () is the Aerial warfare, aerial and space warfare branch of the Spanish Armed Forces. History Early stages Hot air balloons have been used with military purposes in Spain as far back as 1896. In 1905, with th ...

Specifications

* Weight (including shelter): < 3400 kg * Frequency range: 2.9 to 3.1 GHz (S-Band) *

Pulse repetition frequency The pulse-repetition frequency (PRF) is the number of pulses of a repeating signal in a specific time unit. The term is used within a number of technical disciplines, notably radar. In radar, a radio signal of a particular carrier frequency is tu ...

: Fixed: 250 Hz, Staggered: Six PRF's around 250 Hz * Pulse width: 6.5 microseconds * Peak power: 4.0 MW * Average power: 6.7 KW * Beam width (horizontal): 1.1 degrees * Beam width (vertical): 1.5 to 8.1 degrees; total 20 degree coverage; six stacked beams * Antenna rotation rate: 6 rpm * Maximum range 240 NM * Maximum display range: 450 km * Types of cooling : 4 types of cooling use (Air, Gas, Oil and Water) * Antenna characteristics: Reflector aperture 14 ft (4.27 m) high by 20 ft 4 in (6.20 m) wide

Footnotes

References

Notes

Sources

radartutorial.eu Card Index of Radar Sets - Ancient Radars – AN/TPS-43

''(accessed 2015-01-02)'' * * *

External links

* {{cite web, url=http://www.fuerzaaerea.mil.ar/material/an-tps43.html , title=Armamento - Material Terrestre - Sistema de Radares Westinghouse AN-TPS43 y W-430 , language=es , website=Fuerza Aérea Argentina (sitio oficial) , publisher=Fuerza Aérea Argentina (Argentine Air Force) , location=Buenos Aires, Argentina , access-date=6 January 2015 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924020036/http://www.fuerzaaerea.mil.ar/material/an-tps43.html , archive-date=24 September 2015 Military radars of the United States Ground radars Radars of the United States Air Force Argentine Air Force Military equipment introduced in the 1960s Military electronics of the United States