RASIT (''RAdar de Surveillance des InTervalles'') is a ground-surveillance

pulse Doppler A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars and ...

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

developed by

Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Hous ...

(now

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...

), and fielded by several militaries. The original version of RASIT had a range of 20 kilometers and allowed a skilled operator to distinguish between personnel, vehicles, and aircraft. RASIT operates in the I band and has a peak power of two

kilowatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor of ...

. The system is deployed on vehicles (although it can be removed from its mount and emplaced on the ground) and has been used by at least 32 nations.forecastinternational
/ref> The latest version of RASIT, the RASIT-E, has a range of 40 kilometers. RASIT was developed in the mid-1970s and over 700 units had been sold by 1996. The latest RASIT customer is

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, where the radar is used for border surveillance.

Notes and references

External links

forecastinternational report on RASIT

Ground radars Military radars of France {{weapons-stub