JORN

To me, the JORN system is one of Australia’s quietest achievers. It is an astounding system, the most capable radar network in the world, all Australian designed and built, and should be acknowledged as one of Australia’s finest defence technology achievements.

JORN, the Jindalee Over-the-horizon Radar Network, is due to be handed over to the ADF in late 2001, and will provide, along with the new Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft, a quantam leap in Australia’s surveillance capability. Engineers at RLM Systems in Melbourne, a joint venture between Australia’s largest defence contractor, Tenix Defence Systems, and Lockheed Martin, are running final checks before handing over the system to full ADF control. RLM is based in Melbourne, at the Melbourne Integration Facility, a high security property in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs where 350 software, computer systems and aerospace engineers have been polishing up over 1 million lines of software code needed to run the JORN system. Another 120 or so are working at the radar sites at Laverton, Western Australia and Longreach, Queensland.

The official line regarding the capabilities of the JORN system is that it has a range of 3000km, but the displays runs out past 5000km, giving the ability to peer into the South China Sea. The JORN system can detect and identify light aircraft sized objects travelling at all speeds in the air, as well as ships.

Recently, observers were allowed into the MIF for the first time for a live demonstration. From the Longreach transmitter in Queensland, radio pulses were bounced off the ionosphere to concentrate reflected, high frequency energy into the Timor area to paint transient targets. Air traffic between Australia and Asia was clearly visible. The computer switched receiving array scans the relections from targets that counce back off the ionosphere and isolates the weak target information from background noise. The returns appear in a “waterfall” display on a high res screen. At the same time, the banks of Compaq Alpha computers isolate the ships or aircraft in the scanned area and paint them onto a map plan display. The resulting blips give little direct information about the targets. But as the JORN processors sense the doppler effect of movement, their speed and tracks differentiate – for instance – between ships and aircraft and between transport aircraft and fast movers.

Backing up the radar is an elaborate sytem of beacons and sounders. Six transponders at known locations around the Australian coast and Christmas Island, all within scanned area, provide geographical fixes to calibrate the radar. 16 sounders measure the state ionosphere, which constantly changes in height and character.

JORN will be operated from a centre of control near Edinburgh, a northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, but the radar can also be driven from the MIF, which will initially be used to train ADF personnel in the use of the radar.

http://members.optushome.com.au/mschew/jorn01.jpg
The “official” coverage of JORN

http://members.optushome.com.au/mschew/jorn02.jpg
The basic principle of JORN

http://members.optushome.com.au/mschew/jorn03.jpg
The receiver arrays at Laverton, Western Australia

Any thoughts on this system???

MinMiester