Lifted in Place…

The radome of the NATO radar station is special because it was assembled by a new procedure next to the building, and was lifted from there, with the help of an automobile crane, to its place, the top of the close to 30-meter tall tower. With it, the height of the radar tower is 45 meters.

Capt. László Majoros, the senior radar officer of the MoD Defence Economic Office told us that the radome is a spherical cap made of fiberglass plastic having a full height of 16 meters. He added that the dome protects the radar from environmental factors like rain, wind, ice, thunderbolt and sleet. After the ones at Bánkút and Békéscsaba, it is the third 3D radar station to enter service in Hungary, and these three radars together – and with the already existing two gap-filling radar companies – provide air surveillance in the airspace of the country.

The captain told us that a 3D radar is capable of measuring target distance, azimuth and altitude, whereas a 2D radar can measure only distance and azimuth.

Lt.-Col. Attila Kovács, the Head of the NATO Security Investment Program (NSIP) Department pointed out that next week the Italian SELEX ES radar manufacturing company would start the installation of the RAD31 DL type radar. The radar complex will be finished by January 31 2014. After that, the compulsory tests will be carried out, and according to plans, the radar will enter service in next spring or summer.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi and Lt.Gergely Péter