Ordinarily, an $8 million Air Force contract to build a new, prototype radar might not get much notice. But this radar system may be "capable of detecting underground facilities" from the air, and "even locating objects within such facilities," according to Inside the Air Force. "The announcement of this project comes at a time when there has been intense speculation about the United States' ability to strike potential Iranian nuclear facilities that may be buried deep underground."
The new war-funding bill in Congress includes money to integrate the 30,000-pound, bunker-busting Massive Ordinance Penetrator onto the B-2 stealth bomber by the end of next year. Many observers believe that's a weapon aiming straight for Iran's buried nuclear goodies.
Ground-penetrating radar already exists, of course. In September, I saw a wheel-barrow-esque system used to hunt for buried bombs in Iraq. But the depth of the ground and the type of soil can limits its effectiveness, Inside the Air Force notes.
"If the ground is very wet, the electromagnetic energy isn't going to penetrate very well; it's going to get eaten up by the moisture. But I have seen things like synthetic aperture radar images at much higher frequencies taken in the desert where you can see underground structures."
Another limiting factor in the performance of such radars is their distance from the target, said Kaminski. Any such radar would need to be mounted on a low flying aircraft such as a UAV flying very close to the target area. Images from long ranges or deep penetrating images would require larger, more powerful antennas...
While the military has "certainly done experimental work," the Defense Department has not fielded such a system operationally, said Kaminski.
"But, these capabilities are certainly in the realm of current technology," he said. "It's a matter of integrating them into a system capability and knowing enough about the geological conditions of the area you're looking in."
(High five: Nick)
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