The Super Fledermaus (literally Super Bat), known in Swiss service as the Feuerleitgerät 63, Flt Gt 63 (fire control radar unit 63), is a pulse-radar fire control system, 111 of these systems were in service with the

Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (; ; ; ) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914, three days after the outbreak of World War I, as a part of the Swiss Army, army and in October 1936 as an independent service. In peaceti ...

from 1965 to 1977. Under the lead of

Contraves Rheinmetall Air Defence AG is a division of German armament manufacturer Rheinmetall, created when the company's Oerlikon Contraves unit was renamed on 1 January 2009 and integrated with Rheinmetall's other air-defence products. Oerlikon Contra ...

, the Super Fledermaus fire control system was jointly developed and produced by ten companies. It replaced the Fire control radar Mark VII in Swiss service, and was in turn replaced by the Skyguard system.

Function

The Flt Gt 63 comprises a towed trailer, a

Doppler radar A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the fre ...

in the E / F-band with a range of 15 kilometers and a pulse Doppler Rader in the J band, again with a 15 kilometer range, it can simultaneously control two Oerlikon 35 mm twin anti-aircraft mountings. In use the system's E/F band

search radar This is a list of different types of radar. Detection and search radars Search radars scan great volumes of space with pulses of short radio waves. They typically scan the volume two to four times a minute. The radio waves are usually less than a ...

monitors the airspace scanning for targets; once targets have been identified the target can be tracked and engaged either visually or by radar. Visual operation (OZ) utilizes electro-optical sights on the gun mounts, this allows the direct laying of the guns by their crews; this mode of operation limits the system to daylight/good weather conditions. Radar target assignment (ZZR) requires an oral radio or telephone transmission to the Parallaxcomputer operator, who inputs the search data into the device. Under the control of this

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computation machine (computer) that uses physical phenomena such as Electrical network, electrical, Mechanics, mechanical, or Hydraulics, hydraulic quantities behaving according to the math ...

the

fire-control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are someti ...

tracks the target, the computer continuously calculates a

firing solution A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a huma ...

, and lays and fires the guns by remote control. One Argentine Air Force Super Fledermaus system was captured by the British around Port Stanley Airport in 1982. The Super Fledermaus system was used in the first prototype of the

Flakpanzer Gepard The ''Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard'' ("anti-aircraft-gun tank 'Cheetah, better known as the Flakpanzer Gepard) is an all-weather-capable West German Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon, self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG) based on the hu ...

Technology

*Pulse radar with all round and sector search capabilities as well as automatic tracking *Range: 40km *Frequency: 8600–9600 MHz *Transmit pulse power: 150 kW *Weight: 5400kg *Power supply by 4-cylinder Porsche engine, generator 23 KVA, 380 V *Analog converter with AC technology and computing capacitors / power systems for directional target control, target data tracking, lead calculation and ballistic drop compensation *X-band fire control radar "Albiswerk" with Magnedstation PPI and RH/A display *Sector or omni search, conical scan target tracking

Feuerleitgerät / Flt Gt 69 Superfledermaus

The Flt Gt69 fire control unit is based on the Flt Gt 63, and from 1970 to 1985, 38 were used by the Swiss Air Force in mobile airfield flak batteries (M FLPL flab Bttr). Otherwise identical to the Flt Gt 63, the Flt Gt 69 featured *Pulse radar with background clutter suppression *Three optical target detectors (OZ) The Flt Gt63 and the Fl Gt69 were replaced in the Swiss Air Force by the Skyguard fire control system.

References

Flieger-Flab-Museum The Flieger Flab Museum (English: Swiss Air Force Museum) is located in the Canton of Zurich in Dübendorf on the grounds of Dübendorf Air Base. In the museum, 40 airplanes and helicopters are displayed, with the collection divided into distin ...

Dübendorf * Albert Wüst: ''Die Schweizerische Fliegerabwehr.'' 2011, {{Military of Switzerland Swiss Air Force Military equipment of Switzerland Ground radars Gun laying radars Military equipment introduced in the 1960s