As we mentioned weeks ago, Zona Militar had the privilege of visiting the facilities of INVAP, the prestigious Argentine company known for its achievements in defense, as well as satellite and nuclear development. Located in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche, in the province of Río Negro, INVAP opened the doors of its headquarters to us to get a close look at the advancements and projects that strengthen national defense and support the Armed Forces.
During our tour, we had the opportunity to interview two key figures: Engineer Javier Conti, Manager of the Defense, Security, and Environment Area, and Engineer Gustavo De Souza, responsible for C2 systems development. Both provided us with a detailed and deep insight into INVAP’s current and future projects in the field of radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, rotary-wing vehicles, C2 consoles, and more. This exclusive coverage reveals how INVAP continues to position itself as a fundamental technological pillar for Argentina and its defense capabilities.
It is worth noting that the field of radars has been one of the more recently developed paths compared to other business areas of the Argentine company, such as the satellite and nuclear sectors. In this first installment, we will explore how this evolution has occurred over 20 years in the realm of defense and the Armed Forces with INVAP.
“The start of the area,” Conti mentioned, “has to do with the Argentine State deciding to develop secondary radars here, which are radars used for air traffic control. (…) So, a contract was signed with the Air Force to develop this operational prototype (..) and then we started mass-producing them, and they were approved under ICAO regulations. Currently, there are 22 of these secondary radars. This posed a challenge for us as a company because we hadn’t developed the capacity for mass production until then.”
With this first step, INVAP began to undertake a series of projects that presented various challenges, such as mass production and logistical challenges related to the deployment, installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment in the field. “With this program, we ventured into and learned a lot about radar technology and developed the engineering and production capabilities necessary to tackle these types of projects,“ added the engineer.
Years later, between 2004 and 2006, INVAP began working on other projects internally, and then, with the support of the Argentine Air Force, the Primary Radars emerged, related to the defense field. Regarding this, Javier Conti explained: “There we developed, in evolutionary stages, a project of about 4 years approximately, the RPA 240, the primary radar that is deployed in our territory, mainly in the north, protecting our borders. The difference between a radar for air traffic control and a defense radar is that a defense radar detects any target within its operational range.”
And he continued: “That was our foray into the defense field, which later expanded to other technologies and sectors, but I would say our strength and where we developed the most is related to radar technology. After developing the Argentine Primary Radar Prototype, the RPA-240, we mass-produced and deployed a series that is just being completed in the coming months, consisting of eight radars.”
Over the years, the defense sector ventured into other variants of the RPA-240, considering the needs and requirements of clients. “Many things happened in between, for example, we developed variants of this product from the 240 in mobile versions. The RPA-170 is a version with greater mobility and deployment capabilities but with a shorter range, which was developed and used at the G20 conference in 2018,” said the Area Manager.
Today, the RPA-240, known as the long-range 3D air surveillance radar, is designed to operate in permanent or semi-permanent installations, intended for airspace surveillance and national defense and security, with a range of 240 NM and automatic acquisition and tracking of up to 600 simultaneous targets. Meanwhile, the RPA-170M, derived from the RPA-240, belongs to the medium-range radar category operating in the L/D band, with an instrumented range of 170 NM and automatic target acquisition and tracking (Track-While-Scan).
However, also in the field of radars, INVAP has collaborated on other programs related to the modernization of existing systems that are still in operation for control and surveillance. In this regard, the TPS-43 is a primary and secondary radar acquired by the Argentine Air Force from 1978, with an approximate detection range of 220 miles. One of them was deployed in August 2023 to integrate the National Air Surveillance and Control System (SINVICA) and complement the radars already present in the provinces of Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.
“Other things we did in the field of Defense radars,” noted Engineer Conti, “were modernizing existing systems. Between 2011 and 2014, we developed a project that allowed us to modernize two TPS-43 systems of the Air Force, American radars that the Air Force has used since the late 70s and of course, that technology was more than obsolete and the systems degraded.”
Finally, and continuing with the radar tour, Engineer Javier Conti explained that the RPA-240 was developed with an evolutionary stages methodology that continues to be applied in projects, while still developing technological evaluation models.
In this regard, he mentioned: “For example, the Argentine Primary Radar RPA 240, we did it in five stages from MET 1 to MET 5, where the scope of each stage is defined according to what is intended to be evaluated in each stage, from there technological enablers are chosen in each of the subsystems, combined, and some product is generated that can be quite similar to the final one. For example, the MET 3 of that development resulted in a primary radar with very good performance that with a traditional effort became a product that to this day is in operation, the RAME (Medium Range Radar), which we delivered to the Air Force and has been operated in various locations in our country.”
Today, remarked the interviewee, INVAP participates in the deployment and continues with the maintenance of the radars operated by the Argentine Air Force. “We are involved in all stages of the product life cycle, adapting our maintenance scheme to the operational and logistical needs of the Armed Forces,“ he said.
Finally, he also added that based on the experience gained with the RPA-240 and also based on technological advances in recent years, the RPA-200 Radar has been designed. “Currently, the radar is in production in both fixed and mobile versions. We are providing the fixed version to the Air Force and the mobile version to the Argentine Army. Additionally, this product is having a very good impact internationally,” he assured.
The RPA-200 is a modern L-band radar. It consists of an ADS-B sensor, an IFF sensor, and a long-range 3D primary sensor. The system is entirely designed and produced by INVAP, with state-of-the-art technology incorporating Doppler processing throughout the coverage volume (A-MTD), digital beamforming (DBF), GaN amplification technology, modular and scalable architecture based on software, machine learning capabilities (Smart Radar), and an advanced electronic countermeasures system (ECCM). It performs excellently in a wide range of operational scenarios, even in the most adverse conditions of clutter and interference.
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